‘Ashes of Time Redux’ opens in theaters

I was kindly reminded by a longtime reader that Wong Kar-wai’s ASHES OF TIME REDUX opened in limited release to theaters in New York and Los Angeles this past weekend. To celebrate, we have a new trailer and new poster art to share from this newly edited version, as well as a large Brigitte Lin pic that makes a killer wallpaper for your computer desktop.

Trailer for ASHES OF TIME REDUX. Maybe it’s just me but it sounds odd to hear Cantonese being spoken in a wuxia film, where Mandarin is usually the preferred language.

This artsy screen adaptation of author Louis Cha’s novel EAGLE SHOOTING HEROES was originally released in 1994 and has long been considered by many to be one of the greatest wuxia films ever made. That’s certainly my opinion and a significant reason is aptly stated by the director himself.

“I tried to depart a little from the traditional martial arts genre,” said Wong in describing his vision of Cha’s story. “Instead of treating these characters as heroes, I wanted to see them as ordinary people – at the stage before they became heroes.”

Another reason for the film’s critical success s that Wong brings forth stellar performances from some of Hong Kong’s greatest screen icons of the era including the late Leslie Cheung, Brigitte Lin, Tong Leung Chiu-wai, Tony Leung Ka-fai, and Maggie Cheung.

On top of that, the film benefits from incredible cinematography from Christopher Doyle and rare wuxia action direction from Sammo Hung.

This REDUX version has been reedited and restored. It contains a new score by Wu Tong, featuring cello solos by Yo-Yo Ma. Wong also addressed why he chose to tinker with his only wuxia film and re-release it overseas.

“Over the years, I’ve come to realize that there are several different versions of ASHES OF TIME in circulation, some approved by me, some not, as well as the fact that the film was never released in much of the world including the United States,” said Wong. “To rectify this situation, we decided to revisit this project and to create the definitive version.”

“As we launched into the work, we discovered that the original negatives and sound materials were in danger: the laboratory in Hong Kong where they were stored was suddenly shut down, without warning. We retrieved as much as we could, but the negatives were in pieces. As if we were searching for a long-lost family, we began looking for duplicate materials from various distributors and even the storage vaults of overseas Chinatown cinemas. As this went on, we came to realize that there are hundreds of prints locked up in Chinatown warehouses in those cities which used to show Hong Kong movies. Looking through all this material felt like uncovering the saga of the ups and downs of Hong Kong cinema in the last few decades. And this history, of course, included ASHES OF TIME.”

Hopefully, this film will spread to a few more cities before the theatrical run ends. Those of us not lucky enough to see this in theaters should seek solace in the knowledge that Sony Pictures will undoubtedly put forth a DVD release by 2009.