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ASHES
OF TIME
AKA:
N/A
Year:
1994 Reviewer: Rob
Daniel
Wong
Kar Wai's stunning 1994 wuxia pien film is (in)famous
for its troubled gestation. Taking over two years to reach the
screen, Wong made his internationally best known film, 'Chungking
Express', as breather from this film when editing
spiralled out of control.
Expectations were in orbit when the film was eventually
released and predictably it drew criticisms.
Watching
'Ashes of Time' for the first time on its tenth year
anniversary is maybe the best way to approach it.
Prepared for a compromised classic, it is a genuine
surprise to discover the film is a complete success.
The supposedly confused and confusing plot unfolds as a
perfectly structured meditation on the curse of memory, the
destructive bitterness of unrequited love and the futility of
swordplay as a solution.
Leslie
Cheung is Ouyang Feng, aka Malicious West, the proprietor of a
desert inn, much as co-star Maggie Cheung was two years
previously in 'New
Dragon Inn'. Unlike
Cheung's feisty character, Feng is emotionally deadened
because of his lover's marriage to his elder brother, and acts
as an agent for penniless swordsmen.
The characters who visit him, either in need of his
services or to offer theirs, form the story.
Huang
Yaoshi aka Evil East (Tony Leung Kar Fai) is a lethal blade
whose cavalier attitude to life and love has left a trail of
recrimination. Foremost
of those seeking vengeance is Murong Yang (Brigitte Lin), a
young man whose sister was rejected by Huang.
But, Murong Yin (also Lin) wants her brother dead for
trying to harm Huang! Yin
and Yang are of course the same person, schizophrenically
broken by Huang's rejection and unable to find a path to
peace. Similar
problems confront all the characters, from Tony Leung Chiu
Wai's near blind swordsman to Maggie Cheung as the object of
Feng's infatuation. Solace
comes only through compromise as discovered by Jacky Cheung's
kind-hearted assassin or Charlie Yeung as a peasant girl
trying to buy revenge with eggs and a mule.
Far
from disjointed or confusing, Ashes of Time's plot is a
tapestry of emotion, audaciously flashing backwards and
forwards and shifting voice-overs to piece together the
moments that have led the characters to the barren wastes of
the desert. Taken
from Cha Liang-yung's novel 'The Eagle Shooting Hero', but
apparently emerging as a prequel to the book, the intertwining
tales have the powerful simplicity of fables.
Yin/Yang becoming a master swordswoman by practising on
her own reflection and Leung Chiu Wai's desire to see the
euphemistic "peach blossom" carries a heartbreaking
surprise.
Ashes
of Time offended the wuxia crowd who felt the action
was insufficient and overly abstract in execution.
Strangely, the use of step printing was criticized
after being used liberally a year previously in the much-loved
'The
Bride with White Hair'.
Plus, this is Wong Kar Wai, who continually confounds
convention while creating something far more satisfying.
While the legendary Sammo Hung is on action duty and
there is wirework aplenty, the focus is on characters
and faces
over spectacle. But,
a near-blind Leung Chiu Wai facing an army of bandits as
clouds obscure the sun and Lin explosively tackling her
reflection in a lake are spine-tingling moments of excitement.
Maybe
the only criticism not levelled against Wong Kar Wai was
indulgence of length, as 'Ashes of Time' clocks in at a brisk
ninety-nine minutes, accomplishing everything in less time
than it took Tarantino to tell the first volume of 'Kill
Bill'.
DP
Christopher Doyle and Wong Kar Wai match the ambitious
storytelling with astonishing visuals.
Taking John Ford's cue on what to shoot in the desert,
they traverse the landscape of the human face and are matched
by stellar performances from the cream of early nineties Hong
Kong cinema. Doyle
also captures the harsh beauty of the red desert, complemented
by Frankie Chan's quixotic score which ranges from Eastern
pipes to Morricone choral arrangements.
With
'Crouching
Tiger, Hidden Dragon', 'Hero'
and 'The House of Flying Daggers' bringing respectability back
to wuxia
pien films,
the time is ripe to acknowledge 'Ashes of Time' as a genre
classic.
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