Ashes of Time
by Kar Wai Wong
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Product details
Actor: Brigitte Lin, Jacky Cheung, Leslie Cheung, Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung Chiu WaiDirector: Kar Wai Wong
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Subtitled)
Format: Color, NTSC
Running Time: 95 minutes
Release Date: 2000-04-28
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Publisher: Tapeworm Video
Studio: Tapeworm Video
VHS Movie Reviews of Ashes of Time
Movie Review: Wong Kar Wai's masterpiece, a milestone in art and beauty....Kidnapped and mutilated by impious DVD companies.
Summary: 5 Stars
(5 stars for "Ashes of Time", 1 star for this or any known DVD edition. What a shame.)
One of the best most awarded films and one of the most deep explorations of loneliness and sorrow, justly ranking among the best produced Honk Kong films of the 90's, this mysterious and sensual portrayal of sadness and melancholy is often mistaken for the typical swordsplay action film, dissapointing and even boring the fans of the genre. But make no mistake: This is an Art film in capital letters, a profound and oblique vision within the human soul, based on a non-linear development, flashbacks and voiceovers, with total character emphasys, expressionist camera and enveloping soundtrack, about the pain and intense regrets of the past and memories. The Wuxia film people expects, happens to be only the scenario for this striking epic tale about the meditation of love and the scars of the soul. Never the less, the mysticism provided by the ancient period and the arid landscapes, added to the skilled but tormented master swordsmen stereotype, is the essence and main appealing of the film. The action sequences by Sammo Hung are few and registered in a very particular and hard to digest fashion, like slow motion or kinetic blurry sequences, serving only the purpose of displaying dramatic consequences or graphic portayals of some characters.
Wong Kar Wai's sole intrusion in the popular Wuxia genre and recasting to the martial arts conventions, trascends the usual plot about honor, revenge, or the indominability of the spirit as a mere vehicle for showdowns and violent climax and vindication. Instead, he uses his incredible talent in creating a beautiful, dreamlike and stylised composition about memory, the irretriavability of the past and the consequent impossibility of love and happiness. The affecting enigmatic performances, the atmospheric stirring music, and the mesmerizing imagery of sterile alienating landscapes, are beyond known emotional levels for the genre, and the names of Kurosawa and Leone come out as possible influences, mostly because of Christopher Doyle's gorgeous and lyrical cinematography providing livish visual poetry, as composer Frankie Chan (known as the manchu prince in "The Prodigal Song") creates the definitive Wuxia soundtrack, painting the atmosphere with delicate and sad sound layers accompanying the moments of deep revelations, or the loud rhytmic war fanfares of the epic battles.
The flaw of this otherwise perfect masterpiece, is that it requires more than one view to integrate the amount of apparently diffuse elements of the non-linear and flashback style of the movie, as it is intellectually demading and highly stimulating. After the second or third viewing or a previous study of the plot, the experience can finally be rewarding, and once you're there, there's no turning back, as this movie steals your heart. Because this movie lacks of a single storyline, but it's based instead on different but connected characters and their memories, i would like to provide a short profile on each one for better understanding of the plot and the degrees of profoundity:
- Ouyang Feng (Leslie Cheung): Once known as Evil West, Feng ekes out a lonely existence as a hired sword and agent for other assasins in a remote desert abode. Getting on years and tormented by memories of lost love, he's the main narrator of the story and the connection between other characters. Cynic and Haunted by the past.
- Huang Yaoshi (Tony Leung Kar Fai): Evil East, Ouyang's old friend and fellow swordsman, the emotionally crippled hero appears one day in Ouyang's home with a bottle of magic memory-erasing wine given my a mysterious acquaintance, as he drowns his lovelorn misery in it. Lonely and northless.
- Murong Yan / Yin (Brigitte Lin): A swordswoman with a split personality (Yan, the brother and Yin, the sister) inside a wounded soul, Yan hires Ouyang Feng to kill Huang Yaoshi as he betrayed his sister. Later, Yin also tries to hire Feng to kill her brother Yan, in a fair display of insanity and despair. Hungry for affection, hates herself.
- The Girl (Charlie Yeung): One day, the shy but determined Girl visits Ouyang Feng to hire him for revenge against the soldiers who killed his brother, with nothing to offer but a basket of eggs and an old mule. Feng declines, so she stays outside for days waiting for someone who can help her. Sad and vulnerable.
- Blind Swordsman (Tony Leung Chiu Wai): A colleague of Feng and Yaoshi, this enigmatic and sad character is looking for work as an assasin to raise money to return to his hometown and see the peach blossoms before he goes completely blind. Nostalgic and abandoned.
- Hong Qi (Jackie Cheung): A barefoot beggar with incredible fighting skills, he is often used by Feng in some dirty works. He is in searching of his old self before he got involved with Feng's bussiness and cinicism, and he found in The Girl outside Feng's house, the oportunity for redemption. The only optimistic character despite the circumstances.
Those are the basic characters, and their stories and relationships are developped as the movie moves forward in several climaxes for each one, as well as other secondary but also important appereances of Maggie Cheung and Carina Liu as abandoned lovers, bring some sense and connection to the drama.
Finally, please don't get me started on this or any DVD, VCD, or even VHS edition of this outstanding classic. The only decent edition of "Ashes of Time" is the MEI AH Hong Kong DVD, actually the Laser Disc translation with imbedded english/chinese subtitles , 1.0 mono, and not even a scene selection. Now wait, you think that's bad,this US edition is a total mess.
GOOD NEWS!!!!!! On October 10 2008, Sony Pictures will release "Ashes of Time REDUX", a new remastered version with extra footage and new soundtrack. I've heard it's quite amazing, as it was already released in other countries in many film festivals.
HOPE, is what keeps me to hang myself from the injustice of this criminal DVD edition. If you love Wuxia and romance asian style,like " the bride with the white hair", "storm Riders", "Hero", or "crouching tiger, hidden dragon", don't miss this one. And please visit an Asian Movies online store for the Mei Ah edition of this classic.
Movie Review: Boring movie
Summary: 1 Stars
I generally love Wuxia ancient martial arts movies that are packed w/ beautiful acrobatic fighting sequences. This one really disappoints in this respect. I had to stop watching part way 'cause I couldn't stand the blurring of the fight scenes and the oh so slow pacing. This is action/martial arts for heaven's sakes. And the over the top intellectual/deep stuff comes off as too pretensious.
Waste of time.
Movie Review: Do not buy this DVD
Summary: 1 Stars
This DVD is one of the worst I've purchased. I agree with the other reviewers about the quality: It's horrible.
This is what the film looks and sounds like on this DVD:
It looks like it was shot with a camcorder while the film was projected in a movie theater, with all images not centered. There is a lot dirt and debris on the film reel. The color is faded to the black side so colors are dull and morbid. The bottom portion of the screen is blacked out for the English subtitles to display against. There is some pixellation about 6 minutes into the movie and then the audio/video goes terribly out of sink (about 1-2 second delay). The audio seems to have been recorded with a cassette tape and then transfered.
My assumption would be that this is a pirated movie except shot-in-the-theater pirated movies usually have much better quality. I was actually expecting someone to stand up and walk across the screen.
About the film itself:
I cannot tell you what this film is about because I couldn't stand watching more than 8 minutes of the DVD. I purchased it because this film by Wong Gar Wai was highly recommended by a respectable foreign film critic.
Do not waste your money. I purchased this DVD at a local DVD store but was at least able to return it for store credit because of the audio/video sync issue.
Movie Review: alltime worst dvd release ever
Summary: 1 Stars
Make sure you read the review for that is rated 1 star up above. That person is not lying. So sorrRy if I get rude but this really pissed me off.
THE REVIEWS AMAZON HAS SAYS THAT THE DISTRIBUTER IS CAV DISTRIBUTION. THE ONE THAT I GOT WAS THE FAMOUS WORLD DISTRIBUTION. I HAVE ALWAYS HAD SUCCESS FROM THEM BECAUSE THEY SOMEHOW GET THE RIGHTS FROM COMPANIES LIKE CELESTIAL!!!, TAI SENG, MAI EH, AND MANY OTHERS. I CANNOT COMMENT ON WHETHER OR NOT THIS MOVIE IS GOOD. I CANNOT EVEN COMMENT IF THE CAV DISTRIBUTION VERSION IS GOOD, WHAT I CAN SAY IS MAKE SURE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE BUYIGN BEFORE HAND. AND SINCE NOBODY IS ABLE TO COMMENT ON WHAT VERSION THEY GOT, I SUPPOSE I WILL BE THE LONER HERE. SO ONCE AGAIN, I HAVE THE WORLD MEDIA SOMETHING. AND IF SOMEBODY FINDS A GOOD VERSION OF THIS, CAN YOU PLEASE POST IT? I HAVE HEARD NOTHING BUT GOOD REVIEWS FOR THIS MOVIE, ANYBODY WANT TO TELL ME WHAT DVD VERSION YOU HAVE SITTING ON YOUR SHELF?
Movie Review: Deep
Summary: 5 Stars
The movie is a wuxia movie with a twist. That twist is what makes Wong Kar Wai the celebrated director/filmmaker that he is. Wong Kar Wai sticks to genre and then takes it to the next level by doing what he does best, breaks it down - and uses his highly idiosyncratic style of cinematography. The movie is very loosely (and I mean very loosely) based on Jin Yong's "The Eagle Shooting Heroes." So loose in fact that one could argue that this movie is neither a wuxia movie or based on the book. Ouyang Feng (Leslie Cheung) is a disillusioned swordsman for hire. He left White Camel Mountain to run an inn in the desert. Ouyang Feng's real business is to serve as a middle-man between mercenaries and those who need them. He is all business. Among those who come into his space are Huang Yaoshi (Tony Leung Ka Fai) - who is involved with Feng's former love interest, Murong Yin/Murong Yang (Brigitte Lin) - being one and the same, she both loves and hates Huang Yaoshi. Others include a blind swordsman (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) who wishes to see his love and home before he finally loses his site. The couple, of sorts, that defy explanation is the combination of the blind woman played by Charlie Yeung and the character Hong Qi (Jacky Cheung), a swordsman who comes to her aid. To top that off, we should not forget the moving performances of Carina Lau and Maggie Cheung - without whom this picture would not be complete.
Stephen Teo argues that it is Kar Wai's characters that make his movies. In a move that follows "Days of Being Wild," it is the characters that show up for the smallest amount of time that leave a lasting impression. In the case of "Days of Being Wild," the last minute appearance by Tony Leung is arguably his best. In "Ashes of Time," Maggie Cheung shows up for only for a few minutes but she impacts all of Leslie Cheung's character. Carina Lau's character (and hands) is stunning - enough said.
"Ashes of Time" is a wild movie about love, desperation, and forgetting. Wong Kar Wai is better known as a director of art house films such as "Days of Being Wild" (available on Amazon.com) and a later movie - and my personal favorite - "In the Mood for Love" (also available on Amazon.com). His trademark style of seemingly freeform story telling and inventive imagery are deftly combined with Christopher Doyle's cinematography to produce this masterpiece. "Ashes of Time" is Wong's only wuxia movie to date. In it we find, I argue, his most developed characters and sense of experimentation. Certainly recommend it to those wuxia fans out there... but don't expect the clean story lines of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or House of Flying Daggers... this one is messy and that makes all the difference.
Miguel Llora
Chinese Video
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