Ashes of Time is inspired by characters from Louis Cha’s novel The Eagle-Shooting Heroes. It centers on a man named Ouyang Feng. Since the woman he loved rejected him, he has lived in the western desert, hiring skilled swordsmen to carry out contract killings.
His wounded heart has made him pitiless and cynical, but his encounters with friends, clients and future enemies make him conscious of his solitude…

The flag is still. The wind is calm. It’s the heart of man that is in turmoil!

The story takes place in the jianghu, the world of the martial arts. Ouyang Feng has lived in the western desert for some years. He left his home in White Camel Mountain when the woman he loved chose to marry his elder brother rather than him. Instead of seeking glory, he ends up as an agent. When people come to him with a wish to eliminate someone who has wronged them, he puts them in touch with a swordsman who can do the job. –Artificial Eye

Director

Wong Kar-wai

Born in Shanghai, he moved to Hong Kong with his parents at the age of five. Coming from the Mainland and speaking only Mandarin and Shanghainese, he had a difficult period of adjustment to Cantonese speaking Hong Kong, spending hours in movie theatres with his mother. He made his directing debut in 1988 with As Tears Go By, produced by Alan Tang. It was a crime melodrama of the kind then hugely popular, and with heavy borrowings from Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets (1974), but already displayed one of his principal trademarks in its atmospheric and sometimes expressionistic color palette. It is his only box office hit to date. Wong went on to direct several more feature films in the 1990s, among these were Chungking Express (1994), Fallen Angels (1995), Ashes of Time (1994). His first major international recognition was at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival where he won the Best Director prize for Happy Together (1997). The filming of In the Mood for Love (2000) had to be shifted from Beijing… read more

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WhatsUpWill

18Jan12

I have yet to see a Sirk film, but I can't imagine his films to get more melodramatic than Ashes of Time. We all know that Wong Kar Wai is a visual master - this film doesn't disprove that. The story, however, is a complete mess and the editing doesn't help it. While many elements of the plot connected with me, I felt that the film was too disjointed to leave any lasting thoughts or feelings. A rare miss from Wong.

qwertyqueen

25Nov11

can we not compare this to godard pls it's nothing like his movies

Lights in the Dusk

23Dec11

Well, I disagree. This particular work reminded me of the Godard of 'Hail Mary', 'Germany Year 90 Nine Zero' and 'Hélas pour moi' in particular. In fact, I found it profoundly more 'Godardian' in tone and approach than Wong's previous 'Chunking Express', which is too often compared to Godard on the basis of some fairly superficial references to the nouvelle vague. 'Ashes of Time' uses an approach consistent throughout Godard's work since at least 'Opération Béton' from 1958; the use of the landscape as a means of creating commentary on the emotional state of his characters, or as a visual representation of the text as spoken on the soundtrack. In Godard's work, the characters speak poetic quotations against images of desolate or pastoral landscapes, creating a totality of feeling between the two. Think about Lemmy Caution quoting Goethe over a shot of the frozen lake in 'Germany Year 90 Nine Zero' and then compare it to similar sequences found here. It's that particular sense of ideas, associations and emotions created by the juxtaposition of sound and image, which is one of the major creative elements of Godard's work, that is most apparent in this film. This is what I'm talking about when I say "Faint traces of Godard - the voice on the landscape: mournful, tragic, contemplative", which is hardly a comparison. If I'm comparing anything at all, it's a tone, or an emotional connection; something that is felt, not seen.
WhatsUpWill

18Jan12

Personally, I see more Resnais than Godard.

EastyBoy

14Nov11

It was a bit hard to get a grip on what this film and it's narrative were really about, but it didn't matter as I liked it just as a dreamlike abstract wash of scenes, characters and gorgeous colours. I enjoyed it very much.

Lights in the Dusk

16Oct11

The landscape as a mirror, reflecting the characters' inner turmoil, solitude and grief. No conventional plot to speak of, but fragments of memories scattered across the fields, the play of light, and the poetic voiceover create a two-way confessional between protagonist and viewer. Faint traces of Godard - the voice on the landscape: mournful, tragic, contemplative - but anchored by Wong's whirling melodrama.

EastyBoy and Jack Lehtonen like this