From imdb.com: "Ashes of Time Redux is inspired by Louis Cha’s novel The Eagle-Shooting Heroes. It centers on a man named Ouyang Feng (Leslie Cheung). Since the woman he loved rejected him, he has lived in the western desert, hiring skilled swordsmen to carry out contract killings. His wounded heart has made him pitiless and cynical, but his encounters with friends, clients and future enemies make him conscious of this solitude…"
This movie is like a poem. It’s filled with gorgeous desert landscapes.
I had a hard time telling many of the characters apart because they were all Chinese.
About half of the film is taken up with close-ups of these inscrutable Oriental faces. Then there are long lingering sweeps of the desert and occasional ballet-like sword-fighting scenes.
All the women in the movie are beautiful and pure. The male protagonists are a step away from heroism.
The movie is all about love and killing.
It’s not set in reality but in a parallel universe. Individuals define their own morality and they are larger than life, "capable of superhuman feats in controlling their own qi (energy), and gender is more fluid than in the workaday world."
"The conventional laws of physics can be suspended: when the need arises, these people can fly." (Sony Classics)
I’ve loved all the Sony Classics movies I’ve been invited to. Other studios should invite me too so I can shill for them.
Here’s the statement that precedes the film: "The flag is still. The wind is calm. It’s the heart of man that is in turmoil." (Buddhist canon)
I saw one other movie by this director — Happy Together. I was invited by this girl from Kansas who told me it was a romantic comedy.
Only once I was immersed in the date did I realize it was romantic comedy between two men!
The only time I’ve ever been moved by faggotry was on Brokeback Mountain.
Sheesh, to cleanse the palate, I demanded my date hang around to catch the second feature — something refreshingly heterosexual and porny.
Sitting right in front of me during the screening was Lewis Fein‘s toy David Ehrenstein.
Tony Leung Chiu Wai as “Blind Swordsman”
Tony Leung Chiu Wai as “Blind Swordsman”
Jacky Cheung as “Hong Qi”
Jacky Cheung as “Hong Qi”
Jacky Cheung as “Hong Qi”
Leslie Cheung as “Ouyang Feng”
Left to Right: Leslie Cheung as “Ouyang Feng,” Jacky Cheung as “Hong Qi”
Maggie Cheung as “The Woman”
Tony Leung Chiu Wai as “Blind Swordsman”
Tony Leung Chiu Wai as “Blind Swordsman”
Tony Leung Ka Fai as “Huang Yaoshi”
Brigitte Lin as “Murong Yin/Murong Yang”
Tony Leung Ka Fai as “Huang Yaoshi”
Left to Right: Tony Leung Chiu Wai as “Blind Swordsman” and Brigitte Lin as “Murong Yin/Murong Yang”
Director Wong Kar Wai
Carina Lau as Peach Blossom
