Ashes of Time Redux (1994/2008)
Oct. 31st, 2008 08:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
randy_byersSaw this at the Varsity last night with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
holyoutlaw. I had previously seen Ashes of Time a couple of times on a VHS dub of the laserdisc, but it has been so long since I saw it that I couldn't tell you what the differences are. This is a re-edited version, with changes in the music as well, from what I've read. One thing I will say is that overall it seemed a lot clearer -- more coherent -- than the previous times I'd seen it, although it's still an elusive film.
This is Wong Kar Wai's take on wuxia -- the Chinese genre of swordplay and chivalry. Just as my impression of Fallen Angels was that it was an inverted John Woo gangster movie, with almost all the gunplay cut out, this is a wuxia movie with almost all the swordplay cut out. It's sort of the secret lives of swordsmen, with a heavy emphasis on romantic melancholy and betrayal. Indeed, like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, it's about the painful memories of lost love and the question of whether to erase them.
Now I'm not a big fan of Wong Kar Wai. I've seen four of his films, and they are all about romantic melancholy. This would seem to be natural territory for me, since I'm pretty heavily invested in romantic melancholy myself, but I find I get tired of his approach after a while. I feel like he wallows in it, and I start wanting to tell him to go take a long walk and accept his losses. Ashes of Time certainly suffers from this, although it didn't seem as slow and heavy as the last time I saw it. Maybe that's where some of the editing happened. For example, the final scene of the grieving Maggie Cheung didn't seem to go on for ever this time. On the other hand, it was still hard to muster much sympathy for her or Ouyang Feng, both of whom pine for each other and regret the pride that kept them apart. Maggie in particular is stuck in a one-note performance, which even in a cameo role is shortly trying.
This is still probably my favorite Wong Kar Wai movie, however, just for the visuals. Apparently the cinematographer, Christopher Doyle, doesn't like this new version, which tweaks the colors. Sometimes the color looks so artificial and thick that it looks like a painting by Klee or Kandinsky. Sometimes the artificial colors looked a little off to me, almost solarized, but mostly I thought it was very beautiful and gave the film a fairytale look. There are also some absolutely gorgeous shots of light reflecting on water -- images of transformation and restless form, utterly magical. The fight scenes, choreographed by Sammo Hung, are chaotic and enigmatic. Again, they reduce wuxia tropes to something schematic and abstract -- whirling figures, flashing blades, the thump of the foot before the leap.
Oh yeah, the soundscape is the other thing I really like about this movie. It reminded me at times of Ridley Scott's Legend, with all kinds of fluttering wings, deep bass string swellings, and haunting wails in the background. Fits the evocative, estranged mood of the story very well. On the other hand, Yoyo Ma has found his niche, as Luke said.
One thing that may have been trimmed (I'm going to have to dig out that videotape to see) is the scene of the nearly-naked babe lounging mournfully on the horse in the water. I remembered that as being more extensive. Perhaps Wong was reacting to the parody -- I'm forgetting the title of the film now -- where he's sent back to the '60s and has to try to make films in that era of of the Hong Kong film industry. He attempts to create the sexy girl on the horse scene and is roundly mocked for it. Ah well, at the same time Wong was filming Ashes of Time, his producer, Jeff Lau, was using the same cast to film a very silly parody of the source novel of Ashes of Time, The Eagle-Shooting Heroes. Just as incoherent in its own way, but a lot funnier. That's how I learned the Monkey Stealing Peaches technique, for example.
holyoutlaw. I had previously seen Ashes of Time a couple of times on a VHS dub of the laserdisc, but it has been so long since I saw it that I couldn't tell you what the differences are. This is a re-edited version, with changes in the music as well, from what I've read. One thing I will say is that overall it seemed a lot clearer -- more coherent -- than the previous times I'd seen it, although it's still an elusive film. This is Wong Kar Wai's take on wuxia -- the Chinese genre of swordplay and chivalry. Just as my impression of Fallen Angels was that it was an inverted John Woo gangster movie, with almost all the gunplay cut out, this is a wuxia movie with almost all the swordplay cut out. It's sort of the secret lives of swordsmen, with a heavy emphasis on romantic melancholy and betrayal. Indeed, like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, it's about the painful memories of lost love and the question of whether to erase them.
Now I'm not a big fan of Wong Kar Wai. I've seen four of his films, and they are all about romantic melancholy. This would seem to be natural territory for me, since I'm pretty heavily invested in romantic melancholy myself, but I find I get tired of his approach after a while. I feel like he wallows in it, and I start wanting to tell him to go take a long walk and accept his losses. Ashes of Time certainly suffers from this, although it didn't seem as slow and heavy as the last time I saw it. Maybe that's where some of the editing happened. For example, the final scene of the grieving Maggie Cheung didn't seem to go on for ever this time. On the other hand, it was still hard to muster much sympathy for her or Ouyang Feng, both of whom pine for each other and regret the pride that kept them apart. Maggie in particular is stuck in a one-note performance, which even in a cameo role is shortly trying.
This is still probably my favorite Wong Kar Wai movie, however, just for the visuals. Apparently the cinematographer, Christopher Doyle, doesn't like this new version, which tweaks the colors. Sometimes the color looks so artificial and thick that it looks like a painting by Klee or Kandinsky. Sometimes the artificial colors looked a little off to me, almost solarized, but mostly I thought it was very beautiful and gave the film a fairytale look. There are also some absolutely gorgeous shots of light reflecting on water -- images of transformation and restless form, utterly magical. The fight scenes, choreographed by Sammo Hung, are chaotic and enigmatic. Again, they reduce wuxia tropes to something schematic and abstract -- whirling figures, flashing blades, the thump of the foot before the leap.
Oh yeah, the soundscape is the other thing I really like about this movie. It reminded me at times of Ridley Scott's Legend, with all kinds of fluttering wings, deep bass string swellings, and haunting wails in the background. Fits the evocative, estranged mood of the story very well. On the other hand, Yoyo Ma has found his niche, as Luke said.
One thing that may have been trimmed (I'm going to have to dig out that videotape to see) is the scene of the nearly-naked babe lounging mournfully on the horse in the water. I remembered that as being more extensive. Perhaps Wong was reacting to the parody -- I'm forgetting the title of the film now -- where he's sent back to the '60s and has to try to make films in that era of of the Hong Kong film industry. He attempts to create the sexy girl on the horse scene and is roundly mocked for it. Ah well, at the same time Wong was filming Ashes of Time, his producer, Jeff Lau, was using the same cast to film a very silly parody of the source novel of Ashes of Time, The Eagle-Shooting Heroes. Just as incoherent in its own way, but a lot funnier. That's how I learned the Monkey Stealing Peaches technique, for example.
