You have to give credit where credit’s due, and unfortunately it doesn’t seem like Wong Kar-Wai gets much when it comes to Ashes of Time.

As a long-time fan of Wong’s films I was extremely glad when he decided to go back to give Ashes a remake, not only because the only DVD release was of shitty quality, but because the film itself… well, it didn’t make much sense. It’s true that all his films are very non-linear and require some careful thought, but Ashes always kind of suffered most, feeling like a huge jumble of unconnected occurrences. The Redux version actually fixes this problem. There are still some problems with understanding the timeline of the film, but overall it flows much better, and the connections between the characters is made clearer.

To comment on the review below, I’d have to say that Ashes is not a film for everyone. The slow pace, confusing story, and non-traditional slow-motion action scenes will most likely turn off those who are looking for Jet Li and John Woo style films, but to those who are familiar with Wong Kar-Wai’s aesthetics, you’ll walk away with appreciation for an auteur who really does care about his work and the way it is received. If anything this is a film about lost loves and missed chances, not bloody sword fights.

Ashes of Time was, and still is, a very unique addition to the wuxia genre of Chinese cinema as well as Wong’s filmography. The Redux version is a great restoration of what is surely an underappreciated film, and I’m glad to see it got the treatment it deserved from its creator.

I’ve watched and enjoyed many foreign films in different genres, but I really love period martial art pieces. Once Upon a Time in China is a good example of how these movies should be made. Ashes of Time is the antithesis.

To be fair, I was so disengaged, I quit watching sometime shortly after the first 10 minutes. I simply couldn’t bear to sacrifice one more second of my life in the hopes that this train wreck would straighten out and get back on track. I also think sometimes meaning doesn’t translate well from one culture to the next, but the feeling I got from this movie was that it was straining for depth and gravity that it just didn’t own.

There were no fight scenes worth speaking of in the first 10 minutes and the storytelling was so spastic and amorphous I had no idea what the story was.