Ashes of Time


Ashes of Time is a 1994 Hong Kong wuxia film written and directed by Wong Kar-wai, starring Leslie Cheung, Tony Leung Ka-fai, Brigitte Lin, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Carina Lau, Charlie Yeung, Jacky Cheung, and Maggie Cheung. The film serves as a backstory for some characters from the novel The Legend of the Condor Heroes by Jin Yong. It was selected in September 1994 to compete for the Golden Lion at the 51st Venice International Film Festival.

Synopsis

leaves his home on the day of his brother's marriage, setting up an inn near a desert town and offering his services as a killer. Every year, his friend Huang Yaoshi stops by to drink with him. On one particular visit, Huang brings a jar of wine capable of erasing memories and offers it to Ouyang, who declines. Huang then drinks it and departs the next day.
Murong Yang, a prince of the former Yan kingdom, visits the inn and requests Ouyang to kill Huang for breaking a promise to marry his sister, Murong Yin. Murong Yin later asks Ouyang to kill her brother as she believes that her brother has become too possessive and does not want her to marry Huang. Ouyang deduces that Murong Yang and Murong Yin are actually the same person. Descending further into psychosis, Murong Yang/Yin reemerges a few years later as the formidable swordsman Dugu Qiubai.
Blind Swordsman, an old acquaintance of Huang who has fallen out with Huang over the latter's affection for his wife Peach Blossom, visits the inn. As he is losing his eyesight, he wishes to go home and see Peach Blossom one last time before he becomes completely blind. Acting on Ouyang's recommendation, he offers to protect the villagers from bandits but eventually gets overwhelmed and killed by the bandits.
A girl from the village offers her mule and a basket of eggs to Ouyang to hire him to avenge her brother who was killed by soldiers, but Ouyang turns down her offer. She decides to stay there until he changes his mind. Hong Qi, a down-and-out martial artist, takes up the offer and kills the soldiers in exchange for a single egg, but loses one of his fingers in the process. After recovering, he leaves the inn with his wife, and later becomes the famed Northern Beggar.
Ouyang is informed that his sister-in-law, whom he secretly loved, had died of illness two years after he left home. Before her death, she had asked Huang to bring a jar of wine to Ouyang. Ouyang ultimately decides to drink the wine, burn down the inn, and return home to improve his martial arts prowess, eventually becoming the Western Venom.

Cast

Production

In the 1960s, King Hu's Come Drink with Me raised the artistic level of wuxia films. Wong Kar-wai grew up immersed in wuxia culture. In 1972, Bruce Lee's The Way of the Dragon brought jianghu culture to the global stage. In the mid-1990s, wuxia films entered a new stage. Wong selected characters from wuxia novelist Jin Yong's novel The Legend of the Condor Heroes and created an unprecedented wuxia story.
The film serves as a backstory to The Legend of the Condor Heroes as it imagines some of the older characters when they were younger. It focuses on a villain and humanises him while retaining his despicable qualities. Ouyang Feng, known as the Western Venom, crosses paths with the other powerful martial arts masters. Their backstories are depicted with great liberty and sometimes completely subvert the intended meaning from the novel.
During the film's long-delayed production, Wong produced a parody of the same novel with much of the same cast titled The Eagle Shooting Heroes.
Using negatives from around the world, Wong re-edited and re-scored the film in 2008 for future theater, DVD and Blu-ray releases under the title Ashes of Time Redux. The film was reduced from 100 to 93 minutes.

Soundtrack

The music was composed by Frankie Chan and Roel A. García, and produced by Rock Records in Hong Kong and Taiwan. It was released in 1994. The redux version features additional cello solos by Yo-Yo Ma.

Reception

Critical response

When the film was first shown in Hong Kong, it received mixed reviews. Critics found it so elliptical that it was almost impossible to make out any semblance of a plot, saying that Wong Kar-wai had made an introspective film that focuses on the main characters’ inner lives rather than their martial arts performances. This decision is very rare in a wuxia film.
In the New York Times, Lawrence Van Gelder also gave Ashes of Time a mixed review:
The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 79% of critics have given Ashes of Time Redux a positive review based on 84 reviews, with an average rating of 6.70/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "Wong Kar-wai's redux, with a few slight changes from his 1994 classic, is a feast for the eyes, if a little difficult to follow." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 69 out of 100 based on 20 critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Awards and nominations

Box office

Ashes of Time grossed HK$9,023,583 during its Hong Kong run.