Film Screening:

Ashes of Time Redux
(dir. Wong Kar Wai, cinematography by Christopher Doyle, 2008/1994, 93 min, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Cantonese and Mandarin with English subtitles, color, 35mm)

-- Introduced by Prof. Carlos Rojas (AMES)!

Master Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-wai directed this lyrical, dream-like martial arts epic. A famously troubled shoot, Ashes of Time took two years and 40 million dollars to produce (a shocking sum for a national cinema populated with low-budget quickies) and features a virtual who's-who of the Hong Kong film world. Conceived as a prequel to the popular martial arts novel The Eagle-Shooting Hero by Jin Yong, the movie is less a straightforward action thriller than a visually striking meditation on memory and love.

The film is set in five parts, five seasons that are part of the Chinese almanac. The story takes place in the jianghu, the world of the martial arts, and centers on Ouyang Feng (Leslie Cheung), a heartbroken and cynical man who spends his days alone in the desert, connecting expert swordsmen with those seeking revenge and willing to pay for it. As Ouyang narrates his tale, interweaving the stories of his unusual clients, old friends and future foes, he begins to realize the mistakes of his own past, and how his fear of rejection may have led him to a life of exile.

In 2008, Wong Kar Wai re-edited and re-released the film under the title Ashes of Time Redux that, despite the digital restoration, presents a shorter cut. The choice of revisiting the film was due to a major film warehouse going into bankruptcy in 1998 and Kar-Wai was asked to pick up his film or lose it. When they located the film, they discovered the warehouse copy was in pieces. Wong knew that he wanted to re-edit the film, but part of the challenge that he faced was trying to get copies of the film from International distributors and literally having to go worldwide in trying to get the film footage needed to restore the film, and then re-editing it. After five years of trying to get the pieces and restoring it, the film was reduced from 100 minutes to 93 minutes. ADR could not have been done but there was new digital color tinting, digital effects and altered scenes.

-- One of the most celebrated examples of 1990s Hong Kong cinema, Ashes of Time won numerous awards in Asia (including several for Best Cinematography), along with a Golden Osella for Best Cinematography at the 1994 Venice Film Festival.

Cost: Free and Open to the Public!

Sponsors: The Program in the Arts of the Moving Image (AMI) with support from the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation