Ashes of Time (1994)
(Dung che sai duk)
Country: HK/TAI
Technical: col/1.85:1 100m
Director: Wong Kar Wai
Cast: Brigitte Lin, Leslie Cheung, Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung
Synopsis:
A narrative based on the seasons and the lunar months belies the fact that very little is chronological about this film. The story concerns a swordsman who lives on the fringes of society in the desert ever since he lost his love to his brother, because he never got round to asking her himself. Other characters, whose stories seem to play mocking variations on his own, visit him asking him to kill for them.
Review:
The open structure and similarities such as these, and the identity of the various beautiful women we see, make traversing the film a perilous and confusing venture. Shot by Christopher Doyle with orange and blue filters it is at times a ravishingly beautiful experience, with a sweeping romantic score. The action scenes are presented at close quarters and in blurry slow-mo so that one is rarely certain of who is lacerating whom. Nevertheless the themes of lost love and the curse of memory are affectingly and evocatively conveyed.
(Dung che sai duk)
Country: HK/TAI
Technical: col/1.85:1 100m
Director: Wong Kar Wai
Cast: Brigitte Lin, Leslie Cheung, Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung
Synopsis:
A narrative based on the seasons and the lunar months belies the fact that very little is chronological about this film. The story concerns a swordsman who lives on the fringes of society in the desert ever since he lost his love to his brother, because he never got round to asking her himself. Other characters, whose stories seem to play mocking variations on his own, visit him asking him to kill for them.
Review:
The open structure and similarities such as these, and the identity of the various beautiful women we see, make traversing the film a perilous and confusing venture. Shot by Christopher Doyle with orange and blue filters it is at times a ravishingly beautiful experience, with a sweeping romantic score. The action scenes are presented at close quarters and in blurry slow-mo so that one is rarely certain of who is lacerating whom. Nevertheless the themes of lost love and the curse of memory are affectingly and evocatively conveyed.
(Dung che sai duk)
Country: HK/TAI
Technical: col/1.85:1 100m
Director: Wong Kar Wai
Cast: Brigitte Lin, Leslie Cheung, Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung
Synopsis:
A narrative based on the seasons and the lunar months belies the fact that very little is chronological about this film. The story concerns a swordsman who lives on the fringes of society in the desert ever since he lost his love to his brother, because he never got round to asking her himself. Other characters, whose stories seem to play mocking variations on his own, visit him asking him to kill for them.
Review:
The open structure and similarities such as these, and the identity of the various beautiful women we see, make traversing the film a perilous and confusing venture. Shot by Christopher Doyle with orange and blue filters it is at times a ravishingly beautiful experience, with a sweeping romantic score. The action scenes are presented at close quarters and in blurry slow-mo so that one is rarely certain of who is lacerating whom. Nevertheless the themes of lost love and the curse of memory are affectingly and evocatively conveyed.