Reviews:
Ashes of Time has been described by many as one of the worst films in Wong Kar-Wai's filmography.  Indeed, upon first viewing this film it comes across as confusing, and muddled with no real direction.  But actually it is not the case with this film.  Rather it is what one might call an 'IN' film.  That is you have to be 'IN' on the history of how this film came about to truly appreciate or, at the very least, understand it.
First, Ashes of Time is based upon a legendary martial arts novels often called Eagle Shooting Heroes and Return of the Condor Heroes.  While this film serves as a prequel (ala The Phantom Menace) to those stories, it makes short references to them in short subtitled narratives.  These stories are considered classics by many Chinese people and so they know the stories and characters quite intimately.  For the western viewer to fully understand and appreciate the characters in the story, it is highly recommended that you read or watch the original  series before trying to tackle Ashes of Time.  For those non-Chinese speaking viewers recommendations would include the 18 volume comic series by Asiapac books "Return of the Condor Heroes".  For those with some proficiency in spoken mandarin or Cantonese you might want to try watching "Return of the Condor Heroes" television series by TVB, starring Andy Lau Tak-Wah.  The entire series is available on VCD in 2 boxed sets. As a last resort you might even try and watch "The Eagle Shooting Heroes" (1993). While this is a crazy parody of the original story, it stars virtualy all of the actors that appear Ashes (save for Charlie Yeung) and was even produced by Wong Kar-Wai.

Storyline and characters aside, the next major obstacle in understanding this film lies in its production.  At times it represents the traditional swordplay style epic produced by Hong Kong movie houses.  This is due in part to the martial arts direction by Sammo Hung.  However the cinematography during most of the fight sequences is erratic and choppy, a style very typical of Wong's films.  Adding to the confusion is Wong's method of weaving he storyline back and forth, shifting stories, times, places and people.  While it is really not that difficult to follow, anyone who does not understand who these characters are will certainly lose interest very quickly amid this cinematographic chaos.

The characters and story of Eagle/Condor Heroes belong to what some might call high fantasy martial arts.  Having Wong Kar-Wai direct a story about these characters is similar to allowing the late Stanley Kubrick to direct "The Phantom Menace".  It makes for a strange combination of elements with characters that are already established.  

Overall review rating  2.5

Review by Paul Fox
June 2001