[KFCC] Ashes of Time Review

Story: Ouyang Feng runs a small inn at the edge of the desert, he is also known for being a problem solver, in other words he arranges murder for the right price. Every year during the season in which peach trees blossom a close friend visits him, Huang Yaoshi. This year Huang brought something for his friend Ouyang, a magical wine that would make one forget the past. Ouyang could not bring himself to drink the wine while Huang drank without worry. Over the next year many travellers pass by the inn each bringing their stories, many of them being about lost love and why would one wish to forget the past.

Review: Ashes of Time is one of the earlier movies from the famed Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai. This director is known for the camera work and visual quality of his movies, Ashes of Time was the first movie of his that I had a chance to see but unfortunately the poor quality of the DVD left me a little disappointed. Ashes of Time is epic tale set in the martial arts world involving legendary characters, it was this description that got me interested in seeing the movie. Ashes of Time turned out to be something quite different from what I expected, it's not a martial arts movie but more a drama.

The major theme in this movie is the loss of love and regret about a life that could have been. Each of the main characters in this movie have their story to tell and in almost every case it is about regret for not being with the one they truly loved. The story is not completely linear as there are cases where the past and present over lap as the stories are being narrated, this can lead to some confusion in understanding the movie. It would probably be best to see the movie twice to better understand it.

I found the characters rather difficult to digest in this movie, there were all pretty much uninteresting. In other movies there are always some characters that the audience can associate with but in Ashes of Time they seemed distant. The second thing that was hard to digest about the characters was the fact that some of their dialog and many of their actions were on a subtle level. There was a lot of silent emotional anguish in this movie, you can say the actors did a good job in portraying the emotional struggles. Most of the movie revolves around Ouyang Feng (Leslie Cheung) as the central character, he also serves sort as a narrator too. All other characters pass by his inn and sort of tell their own stories, the only real constant character in this movie is Ouyang.

Ashes of Time is a very slow paced movie, there are a few action scenes in the movie but I found them useless and painful to watch. Every swordfight scene consisted and shaky and very blurry camera work, all you knew was there was a fight going on. There was no martial arts to see, nor any excitement to be felt. The action sequences are a failure in my opinion and serve nothing more as story telling elements. The rest of the movie is extremely slow paced, it is limited to character interaction and scenery. The story in the movie was also uninteresting, there were many long and boring moments in this movie.

I've read that people either absolutely loved Ashes of Time or completely hated it. I personally did not enjoy this movie, I had trouble getting into the story and the low quality of the DVD did not help either. The film may be slow paced and lacking action but it does have merit, behind its questionable presentation this movie has a lot of depth both story wise and character wise. If you like a slow paced movie where characters regret their lives and lost love, then perhaps you might enjoy Ashes of Time. If you are expecting swordsplay, action and adventure then avoid Ashes of Time as if it were the plague.