DVD News: Ashes of Time Redux
Article By: Kevin Coll and Adam Joiner
About the Film
Ashes of Time Redux is a DVD release from Sony Pictures Classics - a redux of the 1994 classic international film. The redux of the film was an Official Selection for the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival and the 2008 Festival De Cannes.
Over the years, Wong Kar Wai, the director had come to realize that there were several different versions of Ashes of Time in circulation, some approved by him, some not, as well as the fact that the film was never released in much of the world including the United States. To rectify this situation, he decided to revisit this project and to create the definitive version - Ashes of Time Redux.
Wong Kar Wai, who in recent years, like Ang Lee and Zhang Yimou, has found a much larger western audience is someone I would like to see make more American films. Ashes of Time (1994) and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) are films that pay their dues to their ancestors in the genre while inflecting the jianghu (The Genre These Films Fall in) with modern ideas about psychology, sexuality and existential loneliness. Zhang Yimou’s Hero (2002) and House of Flying Daggers (2004) owe less to the genre’s history and more to an imaginative re-reading of China’s history, but they are none the less rooted in the jianghu. Either way, the jianghu rules. Director Wong Kar Wai has started to break into the western Hollywood films with his first English speaking movie being, My Blueberry Nights in 2007. He has also directed a bunch of short films including, The Follow (2003), starring Clive Owen, for my favorite series of shorts on the BMW on-line series The Hire).
Perhaps the other significant interest into this film is who else is involved in the beauty of it. Yo Yo Ma, the world renowned Celloist provides an extra embodiment to the score with his famous solos. Here is what Yo To Ma had to say about working on the project.
“I love to hear an author’s own words - their own voice - describing their own work and how they perceive it. Musicians deal with time; directors also deal with time, but the way [director Wong Kar Wai] deals with time, it’s as if every nano-second has a purpose, and a very specific purpose. And of course it is character-driven, going deeply into the character and the psycho-social profile of what our hero is thinking about. And, of course, it’s always about love.”
To Read More About the Film and the art of jianghu- Please Click Here. The DVD is being released on March 3, 2009 by Sony Pictures Classics.
Ashes of Time Synopsis
The film is set in five parts, five seasons that are part of the Chinese almanac. The story takes place in the jianghu, the world of the martial arts. Ouyang Feng (Leslie Cheung) 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.
Cast and Crew
Cast: Leslie CHEUNG, Brigitte LIN, Tony LEUNG, Carina LAU, Tony LEUNG, Charlie YOUNG, Jacky CHEUNG, BAI Li, Collin CHOU and with a special appearance by Maggie CHEUNG.
Written and Directed by: WONG Kar Wai
Based on the Story by: Louis CHA
Produced by: WONG Kar Wai, Jeff LAU, Jacky PANG Yee Wah
Executive Producers: TSAI Mu Ho, CHAN Ye Cheng
Director of Photography: Christopher DOYLE (H.K.S.C.)
Action Choreographer: Sammo HUNG
Edited by: William CHANG Suk Ping, Patrick TAM
Production Design by: William CHANG Suk Ping
Music by: Frankie CHAN, Roel A. GARCIA
Additional Score and Re-arrangement by: WU Tong Featuring Cello Solos by Yo-Yo MA
Time: 93 minutes;
Rating: TBA
Other: 35mm 1:1.85 Color; SR-D Dolby
Languages: In Cantonese and Mandarin
Year of Production: 2008
