Ashes of Time (1994, R)

This Wong Kar-wai film is a singular experience.  With all the swordsmen of ancient China running around doing their highly-stylized thing, the easiest label to give it is wuxia, but that doesn’t quite cover it.  Because, while there are some excellent, beautifully-shot fight scenes set up at pivotal moments in the story, the fighting itself isn’t what drives the proceedings.  In the end, it’s part wuxia, part drama, part romance, part existential desert wander.

At the center of Ashes of Time is the semi-reclusive Ou-yang Feng, who’s resided in the desert since he was on the receiving end of some disappointments in love and life.  Reclusive in that he doesn’t get out much, semi- in that he gets a number of people coming to him.  Ou-yang serves as a middle man between swordsmen in need of work and people in need of swordsmen, be it for revenge, protection, or escape.  The narrative meanders through a series of interconnected vignettes as, through Ou-yang, we learn the stories of the people he meets, as well as a little more about what brought Ou-yang to his present situation.

The film offers up an arresting assortment of characters played by nearly everyone Wong has ever worked with.  Leslie Cheung (Happy Together, Days of Being Wild) plays Ou-yang, and even though his performance is a lot more subdued here than the other roles of his I’ve seen, it might actually impress me the most.  Besides Ou-yang, I’ve only ever seen him play mercurial, magnetic types like Po-wing in Happy Together, eye-catching and unpredictable, and it’s cool to see him command the screen with the opposite approach, being so still.  Brigritte Lin (Chungking Express) is fascinating as a woman masquerading as her own brother.  So much to unpack in her plot, and I love watching Ou-yang get to know both of them.  I just adore Tony Leung Chiu-wai (practically all of Wong’s films) as a swordsman with fading vision who’s trying to earn enough to make it home before he goes completely blind.  He carries the role with such quiet, soulful grace, and he has the most gorgeous fight scene in the film. 

Meanwhile, Jacky Cheung (As Tears Go By, Days of Being Wild) plays a poor but confident swordsman striving to make a name for himself, and Tony Leung Ka-fai (who I’ve not seen outside this film) has an interesting plot and a role that ties many of disparate threads of the story together.  There are also briefer appearances by Charlie Yeung (Fallen Angels,) Carina Lau (Days of Being Wild, 2046,) and the flawless Maggie Cheung (too many to list.)

That’s a big chunk of the review spent on the cast and characters, but I’m at a bit of a loss for how else to talk about it.  If you go into the film expecting something like Hero or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, you’ll be disappointed, because there are really only a few big wuxia sequences.  Each is important and stunningly filmed, but the larger point of the movie is the small, fleeting connections made between these people.  It’s a film that’s kind of saturated with loneliness, heartbreak, and a sad sense of arriving just a hair too late, and there’s something wonderful about seeing that lift, if only briefly, in the moments when they’re able to look past their own stories and see someone else’s.

Warnings

Violence (including a few graphic shots) and mild sexual content.