Ashes of Time Redux

B+

Directed by Wong Kar Wai

The recent revelation that Wong Kar Wai's "Ashes of Time" was going to be refurbished, re-scored, and re-released in theaters over the Fall was music to many film lovers ears, my own included, seeing as how "Ashes of Time" is one of the most difficult Wong Kar Wai films to actually get ahold of and when one does, in fact, get their mitts on a copy, it's usually a crappy DVD or a scrambled VHS. The possibility of watching one of Wong's films on the big screen was an added bonus and I looked forward to going and seeing this film in theaters and finally did this evening with my long suffering girlfriend.

"Ashes of Time" stands out as a completely unique film in Wong Kar Wai's ouevre in that it is the only one of his films that is a classic martial arts film and is also his only film set outside a specifically urban setting. Indeed, "Ashes of Time," which tells the story of a number of Wong-esque characters grappling with loneliness and love, is set in a sweeping Chinese desert (perhaps the Gobi!?!) which features vast, open spaces the likes of which will never be seen again in a WKW film until the rather unfortunate "My Blueberry Nights." The harsh, windswept desert serves as a backdrop for various characters (played by a veritable who's who of Wong Kar Wai players including both Tony Leungs, Bridget Lin, Carina Lau, Maggie Cheung and the late Lieslie Cheung) who form a variety of complex love triangles, the type of which have since become associated with Wong through film's such as "Days of Being Wild" and "2046." In many ways, "Ashes" is in its plot very similar to Wong's earlier films in its concern with the concepts of loneliness, time, and memory. What has always perplexed me about "Ashes of Time," however, is that it was completed in 1994, the same year as "Chungking Express" and four years after "Days of Being Wild" yet doesn't contain nearly the emotional depth of either work. Indeed, when comparing the three films it seems as if "Ashes" was completed before the two other films since many of the subjects he deals with so well in "Chungking Express" and "Days of Being Wild," he appears to have diffulty communicating to the audience in "Ashes of Time." This may be due to the fact that Wong felt contrained while making a wuxia film and his characters couldn't develop in the same way as they do when Wong sets his stories in his beloved Hong Kong.
Even if "Ashes of Time" is one of Wong Kar Wai' weaker efforts, it is still a satisfying film and contains moments of epic beauty which proved long ago that Wong didn't need to make a film in Hong Kong for it to be visually stunning. I think that one of Wong's enduring legacies whenever he stops making films will be his ability to have made movies that were both cerebral and genuine but anabashedly romantic at the same time, something that Wong in "Ashes of Time" succeeds in doing, albeit to a far lesser degree than in his best work.