SPOILER WARNING: This review reveals most of the interesting plot details so don't read it if you want to be surprised.

If the French were to begin making swordplay films, they might look something like Ashes of Time. Ashes of Time is an action film about inaction, memory, and wrong choices.

This is Wong Kar-Wai's most confusing, inaccessible film, but it also one of his most rewarding. The story takes characters from The Eagle-Shooting Heroes, a well known action novel by Jing Yong. Ashes of Time is in fact a prequel to the novel, building histories for the novel's main characters.

Any attempt to summarize the plot is doomed to failure, but I will attempt to do so nonethless. Leslie Cheung is at the center of the story as Ouyang Feng (Malicious West) and much of the story is revealed as narrative in his voice. He is a man who finds 'solutions' for people's problems (primarily assassinations) who lives in the western desert. Once a year, he is visited by Huang Yaoshi, also known as Evil East (Tony Leung Kar-Fai). At the beginning of the film, he comes on his yearly visit bringing a pot of magical wine that supposedly erases memory. Huang partakes of it while Ouyang Feng refuses. Soon after, we see Huang meet The Sunset Warrior (Leung Chiu-Wai) in a bar. The Sunset Warrior reveals that he had sworn to kill Huang Yaoshi the next time they met, though he does not. The reason for both his swearing of the oath is revealed later in the film, though it is hinted at in this scene.

We also see Huang Yaoshi with Murong Yin and Murong Yang (both played by Brigitte Lin Ching-Hsia), a brother and sister (really the same person). Huang makes a promises to Yang saying that if Yang has a sister, he will marry her. However, he breaks this promise. Yin is convinced that Yang did this and so hires Ouyang Feng to kill her brother, who also hires Ouyang Feng, except to kill Huang Yaoshi. Confused yet?

Carina Lau plays the woman that both Huang Yaoshi and the Sunset Warrior love, though for reasons revealed later in the film, neither of them is with her. The Sunset Warrior (so named because he is slowly going blind) is in need of money so that he can return to his village to see the peach blossoms (actually the woman he loves is named Peach Blossom) one more time, so Ouyang Feng hires him to kill a band of horse thieves plaguing a nearby village. When he fails, Ouyang Feng recruits the shoeless swordsman Hong Qi (Jacky Cheung) to complete the task. Honq Qi also agrees to kill a band of militamen who killed peasant girl Charlie Yeung's brother, though she cannot pay him with more than a basket of eggs and a mule.

Finally, there is Maggie Cheung (no name given in the film), the woman who used to be Ouyang Feng's lover, but married his older brother to punish him because he continually left her for his martial adventures. Every year, she is visited by Huang Yaoshi, who brings her news of Ouyang Feng, though she makes him promise never to tell Feng of this. These scenes with Maggie Cheung occur before the scenes at the beginning of the film. There are several flashbacks within the film, confusing its chronology, which is part of why the plot is so difficult to follow.

This film is heart-breaking. Almost every character has consistently made wrong choices and they realize this. They are the victim of their passions and their pride. The lone exception is Hong Qi, who does what is right without worrying about the future or what others may think. As a result, he is rewarded and he and his wife are able to be happy together.

This film has an all-star cast performing at their absolute best. Particularly notable is Maggie Cheung, who steals the few scenes she is in. Tony Leung Kar-Fai gives one of the greatest performances of his career as well.

The film's look is different than many of Wong Kar-Wai's other films, featuring many close-ups of the various characters and some shots that would be appropriate in any swordplay film such as characters destroying cliffsides with their swords. The action scenes are filmed in a fairly bizarre combination of grainy footage and slow motion, and action junkies will be disappointed. The sets are sparse, reflecting the fact that what is going on inside the character's heads is far more important than where they are. The desert location is used to great effect, its barrenness obviously intended to reflect the lives of each character, particularly Ouyang Feng.

Ashes of Time is a film that is rewarding on successive viewings. Having seen it four times now I realized just how much I missed when I first watched it (for example, the fact that Brigitte Lin's characters are named Yin and Yang. Wow, do I feel clueless!). This also appears to be Wong Kar-Wai's most hated film. It is likely to engender strong emotions in any viewer, with its script that deals as much with concepts as with characters and the dense plotting of their relationships with one another. Its power, however, is undeniable.