ASHES OF TIME seems to have gone through a fair bit of rehabilitation since it was made. I remember the reviews at the time were quite negative to downright scathing. However, it has always had its hard core of followers, and as this sort of thing is quite fashionable these days, it was perhaps inevitable that the film would be “rediscovered”.

It soon became apparent upon watching the redux that to write about this film properly, I had to see the original too. Therefore, both versions are discussed here, having spent most of the weekend watching both versions, the extras on the new Artificial Eye Blu-ray and reading up on it. This has resulted in a longer review than normal, so try to stay awake at the back, please!

The film is based on the characters from Jin Yong’s novel Legend of the Condor Heroes and focuses on cynical, self-centred assassin Ouyang Feng (Leslie Cheung) as he goes through a year of his life in a remote desert lair. The other characters who weave in and out of his life include swordsman/woman with a gender-split personality (Brigitte Lin), old friend Huang Yaoshi (Tony Leung Ka-Fai), young, idealistic swordsman Hong Qi (Jacky Cheung), a fellow swordsman losing his sight (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai) and a love he lost to his elder brother (Maggie Cheung). There are mistaken identities, love triangles and the usual Wong Kar-Wai themes of love and longing are all very much present and correct.

There is an overall plot involving horse thieves terrorising a small village, which Ouyang Feng is occasionally paid to protect. However, this point is largely lost in the redux version. It does, however, set the scene for the battles that do occur in the film. But this is not an action film as such – one magazine reviewer I read back in the day described it as “an action film about inaction”, and that sums it up nicely, if a little too dismissively. To be honest, you’d be better off forgetting it’s a wuxia movie altogether, as it really doesn’t play by the usual rules.

There are several different threads in ASHES OF TIME, and some work better than others. Despite the jumbled chronology at times, most of the threads tend to resolve themselves before moving to the next one, and for this reason the movie feels quite episodic, although all of the tales involve Ouyang Feng. So while I enjoyed Jacky Cheung’s idealistic swordsman sub-story (complete with wife in tow) and the tragic story of Tony Leung Chiu-Wai’s blind swordsman, I cared less for the Brigitte Lin section, which I thought was a bit melodramatic and Wong Kar-Wai handled it in a heavy-handed fashion. Furthermore, I felt that she overacted quite badly in a couple of scenes, which I thought was most unlike her.

In the end, ASHES OF TIME is always going to split fans down the middle. It has so little action (especially in the redux version) that it can’t be considered an action movie (despite Sammo Hung spending months on set choreographing the swordplay) and contains far too much action to be considered a typical Wong Kar-Wai film. It is perhaps best to overlook the wuxia elements (which aren’t too impressive anyway, relying too much on camera effects and quick editing) and see the film as a tale of lost love and whether or not it’s best to remember or forget.

Even though I hate to say something so passé, the movie was well ahead of its time, and I get the distinct impression that if King Hu had lived to see it he would have loved it to bits, despite ASHES OF TIME only spending one paltry year in production! Personally, although I admire the ambition and scope of the film, I find the overall effect is not as satisfactory as I’d like. Having said that, the denouement has considerable impact and the film’s final message is worth the journey. It’s just that the journey grinds to a halt a couple of times.

When discussing the differences in the available versions, I’ve decided not to do a comprehensive list of the changes in the redux (these can be found on the net without too much trouble) but simply give my opinions on them. The most startling omissions occur early in the film, with the removal of some swordplay footage, including an entire fight scene. Although only a short section, this removal has effectively changed the tone of the entire film, almost making the film shift away from the wuxia genre entirely. Instead, we get a couple of new cutaway shots of some sphere-shaped object that frankly baffled me. There are other cuts all over the place, but they’re all pretty minor. The only new footage (apart from a couple of better blood effects) is brief cutaway shots, which means the film’s running time is reduced by a couple of minutes. Apart from the opening scene with Ouyang Feng fighting the bandits, I honestly didn’t miss any of the omissions. The colour has been tweaked throughout, giving the film a bolder, more visually striking appearance, although sometimes the colour correction can be detected.

It’s more than just the visuals that have been tweaked though. The soundtrack has been overhauled too, with Frankie Chan’s music being rerecorded, somewhat inevitably, with cellist Yo Yo Ma. Blasphemous as it sounds, I don’t find the reworked soundtrack to be sacrilege, but if I was more familiar with the original soundtrack I may have had a different opinion. Watching the original, the synth soundtrack does date the film right in the middle of the 90s, while the new recordings seem a little more timeless.

The one change in the redux that helps the viewer is the inclusion of titles indicating the change of seasons. This separates the film into sections where different sub-stories end and start. I found this change probably the one main improvement over the original, personally. In any case, there’s nothing in the redux I found to be heresy, although again, if I knew the film as well as some fans, I may have had a different opinion.