DVD REVIEW: Remixed 1994 Classic Turns Kung-Fu Genre on Its Head
April 02, 2009
By Tony Lucia, Reading Eagle, Pa.
When, in one of the DVD's extras, critic J. Hoberman describes "Ashes of Time Redux" as something like "Last Year at Marienbad" with moments of intense swordfighting, he comes as close as anyone has to capturing the elusive essence of Wong Kar-Wai's remix of his 1994 romantic reverie.
That is to say, anyone expecting a conventional kung-fu picture -- its source novel already having been the basis for several -- would be confounded. I'd guess that was Sammo Hung's reaction: The martial-arts superstar who choreographed the action saw his elaborate sequences pared down to brief, impressionistic interludes that play like dreams within dreams.
Then again, throw preconceptions out the window and you might be blown away.
No, this is not the world of, say, "Once Upon a Time in China" (not quite as good a title, but apt) or the supercilious artiness of a "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" or even the giddier efforts of King Hu ("A Touch of Zen").
It's that of a genre reinvented, from the inside out.
As with his star-crossed treatment of science fiction in "2046," Wong molds the swordplay epic to serve his obsessive themes of love without hope, of time frozen in longing, of memory freighted with regret.
It takes place nowhere -- a windswept shack in the Mongolian Desert. A swordsman (the late Leslie Cheung) confers with business clients: killers, and those looking to have someone killed.
A man demands revenge on the suitor who spurned his sister -- then she shows up seeking the death of the brother. Or are they the same person?
A swordsman losing his sight hangs out, waiting for a job so he can make enough to return to his village for one last glimpse of the peach blossoms. Or is it someone named Peach Blossom?
A reckless young man sharpens his talent, only to nearly lose everything. Or has he gained much more?
And as for the proprietor? He, too, knows about loss.
Dazzlingly filmed by the infl uential Christopher Doyle and designed by William Chang, "Ashes of Time Redux" came about when the lab where the elements of the original film were stored went bankrupt and Wong found them on the verge of decay. (More of this story is included in the extras, including a 40-minute interview with Wong that in itself merits a rental.)
"Redux" is mostly a restoration, and partly a revision; there are subtle changes, including some newly recorded music, but the general, episodic shape is largely intact.
Wong's almost ridiculously attractive cast amounts to a Who's Who of the 1990s Hong Kong fi lm industry: Besides Cheung, in a marvelously opaque, internalized performance that reminds us of what we've lost, there are Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Tony Leung Ka Fai, Maggie Cheung and Jacky Cheung, Brigitte Lin and Charlie Yeung.
They don't so much perform, though, as haunt the film. Seasons pass; they languish. Closure? Their characters' fates are relegated to a few elliptical titles. That Wong so brusquely dismisses narrative elements that would serve more conventional filmmakers as foundation is key to his vision: A fight to the death ultimately is of less import than the reasons for seeking oblivion.
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