After ‘Days of Being Wild’ came out, the period epic swordplay subgenre became popular because of ‘Once Upon a Time in China’. Wong Kar-Wai, after having such a success with his previous effort, had the pick of his projects. He chose ‘Ashes of Time’, a period swordplay movie. The plot isn’t really important, it’s about a little inn run by Leslie Cheung and the people that come and go. Most of them fight a large group of people, some die, some live. The movie sucks you completely in within the first 10 minutes, so you can’t stop watching until the very end.

Having worked on the movie for so long (about 3 years), all the hidden meanings and sybolism are present, but they’re much more unseen than in Mr. Wong’s two previous movies. The movie’s dialogue is about half actual dialogue and half interior monologue. That’s incredibly effective. This is an ensemble cast, and I find it works much better this time in developing all the characters than ‘Days of Being Wild’. All the characters are distinct and all their stories are enveloping. Combine that with their personal thoughts and actions, and you get characters that are developed in your mind, not in the screen. You feel you know what these characters have gone through without them having to explain their entire lives. The brief glimpses of their past are enough to explain their present and their dialogue and thoughts explain the meaning behind the movie.

Early on, Leslie Cheung says, I can’t tell Yin and Yang apart. This is in reference to Brigitte Lin’s character, but you can easily overlook the direct meaning, right? Later on, after the guy loses his finger, he tells Mr. Cheung something like, I became like you, I didn’t want that. Knowing, say, the difference between companssion and apathy is, I presume, very important.

Maggie Cheung, who plays Leslie Cheung’s brother’s wife, says, ‘Nothing matters because everything changes’. Leslie Cheung’s character changes. At first he just hired people to kill other people. He doesn’t want to take any responsibility for anything. Later on, he’s willing to take the magic wine that makes you forget. He doesn’t want to have the past he has. He doesn’t want to go see the other side of the mountain anymore, like he used to. Everybody has a past, but the past isn’t important because the future won’t be the same. If you don’t listen to that, like Tony Leung, who’s going blind – who’s seeing things less and less – you don’t lead a happy life.

The emotional impact this movie has is incredible. The movie is gripping and packs a punch. ‘The Assassin’ and ‘Dragon Inn’ may be good, but ‘Ashes of Time’ is probably the best period swordplay movie to come out in that wave after ‘Once Upon a Time in China’. Some of the fights are done with the blurring effect Mr. Wong likes a lot, but some of them are just done in slow-motion. The effect is that it drags out all the suspense and intensity it can. You hear the travellers’ stories and you don’t want them to have a nasty end. Morality is on their side, but the main character lacks any such quality. It’s not sure how anything will turn out.

The movie’s cast and crew were the best what Hong Kong had to offer back then. Wong Kar-Wai, Leslie Cheung, Tony Leung Ka-Fai, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Maggie Cheung, Carina Lau, Brigitte Lin, Jacky Cheung, Charlie Yeung, Sammo Hung, Christopher Doyle, Andrew Lau and Frankie Chan worked on this project in some capacity or other. The movie won international awards and won many Hong Kong Film Awards, athough Wong Kar-Wai lost the best director award to himself for ‘Chungking Express’. The stunning cinematography by Christopher Doyle won the award, though, beating out… Christopher Doyle and Andrew Lau for ‘Chungking Express’.

Of all the period dramas that came out after ‘Once Upon a Time in China’, none can bring out your emotions like this one. The characters are strong and interesting, with a typically solid script by Mr. Wong. The direction is perfect with the fights designed to bring out the mood of the action rather than their technicality. The movie took about 3 years to make and it’s worth every second of it.