:
Brigitte Lin,
Leslie Cheung,
Maggie Cheung,
more...
:
Wong Kar-Wai
see all cast/crew...
: Cav Distribution
: Foreign, Costume Drama/Period Piece, Hong Kong, Adventure, Martial Arts, Wuxia
: 95 min.
: Mandarin
: English
see additional details...
This title is currently out of print.
|
|
Master Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-wai directed this lyrical, dream-like martial arts epic. A famously troubled shoot, the film took two years and 40 million dollars to produce (a shocking sum for a national cinema populated with low-budget quickies) and features a virtual who's-who of the Hong Kong film world. Conceived as a prequel to the popular martial arts novel The Eagle-Shooting Hero by Jin Yong, the movie is less a straightforward action thriller than a visually striking meditation on memory and love. It nominally centers on Ouyang Feng (Leslie Cheung), who ekes out a lonely existence as an itinerant hired sword. Getting on in years and tormented by memories of a lost love, he also works an agent for other mercenary assassins from his remote desert abode. Ouyang's old friend and fellow swordsman, Huang Yaoshi (Tony Leung Kar-fai, who starred in the The Lover) drowns his lovelorn misery in a magical wine that makes him forget. Later, a mysterious young man named Murong Yang (Brigitte Lin) hires Ouyang to kill his sister's unfaithful suitor, Huang Yaoshi. The following day, that spurned sister, Murong Yin (Lin again), hires Ouyang to protect her dearly beloved. Meanwhile, Hong Qi (pop star Jackie Cheung) finds some redemption for a life of killing by accepting a poor girl's offer to avenge her brother's death -- a task that Ouyang brusquely shunned. In another subplot, a master swordsman (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) is slowly going blind. He agrees to defend a village from horse thieves so that he can afford to go home and see his wife before his eyesight fails completely. This film is one of the most celebrated examples of 1990s Hong Kong cinema: it won multiple awards in its native Hong Kong, along with a Golden Osella for Best Cinematography at the 1994 Venice Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
|
| Good movie, terrible DVD
by KHoskins
September 18, 2005 - 10:08 PM PDT
|
|
|
2 out of 2 members found this review helpful
|
| Well, there's the film and then there's the experience of watching this DVD at home. An obviously talented director and cast, fantastic use of landscape and light to establish mood, eery fascinating ruminations on love and memory are the pluses, a different take on the kung fu genre, the fighting scenes are shown as confusing explosive flurries of violence, more punctuation than content in the story. The many minuses include an absolutely awful video transfer, worse by far than a VHS copy of a copy of a copy that's been left outside in the rain and sun for five years, just unbelievably bad; audio out of sync; subtitles, OMG were they awful, misspellings and not matching when the actors spoke, leaving it unclear sometimes who was saying what; a strange squashed letterboxing with a bizarre grey shade on the bottom part of the screen for the first fifteen minutes. There's inherent beauty in what the people in this movie are doing, and many truly moving moments; a must-rent if you don't mind shoddy video and audio. Otherwise agree with the other poster, let's hope Criterion or some other company willing to spend more than 10 dollars on the transfer buys the rights to release this movie on a proper DVD. |
| Poor Quality Release
by GDarcy
April 12, 2005 - 8:54 AM PDT
|
|
|
3 out of 4 members found this review helpful
|
| This World Video release of Ashes of Time is practically unwatchable. The sound and color are bad and the subtitles are displayed on a large grey band on the lower part of the screen. For appreciation of a film of this style, good quality is essential. I will reserve viewing it until a better version is available. |
| Not a movie for everyone, but a very rewarding experience
by Waiguoren99
April 1, 2003 - 11:59 PM PST
|
|
|
5 out of 5 members found this review helpful
|
| Ashes Of Time concerns younger versions of the characters in the famous Jin Yong novel The Eagle Shooting Heroes, most particularly its narrator, Ouyang Fong AKA "Malicious West" (Leslie Cheung). No plot summary will be given here; as I feel that experiencing and dealing with the plot complexities is a big part of how the film functions. Full of wonderful performances by some of Hong Kong's best actors and Chris Doyle's justly lauded cinematography (some of the best and most beautiful ever to paint the screen) this is nevertheless not a movie for everyone. In fact, it's a movie which will be satisfying to very few, for it is an auteur's art film at its artiest and most self-indulgent. People (and most particularly critics) seem to either love it or hate it; it has been called everything from the most egregiously overrated film of recent years to an eccentric masterwork. It is said that the glacial pace and confusing plot make it an impenetrable film. While the pace is certainly very slow, that is a function of its form, for this is more of a work of idea and character than it is of story. The plot is almost agressively non - chronological, but I did not find it at all confusing, perhaps because I did not try to "figure it out". In fact, that's the entire key to "getting" this film. It is not a film to use your "logical mind"; rather, you must just relax and allow it to act upon you; experience it along with the characters. This will require a great deal of patience and committment from the viewer, as well as a willingness to surrender to it. If this is something you are willing and able to do, and have the time, this film can be a very rewarding experience. |
|
|
GreenCine Member Rating
(Average 6.42)
143 Votes
add to list 
|
|
|
Your cart
cititzenzero
kmunley
© 2006 All Media Guide, LLC. Portions of content provided by All Movie Guide®,
a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC.