Ashes of Time Redux (1994)
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78% of critics liked it
(18 reviews) -
76% of users liked it
(67 ratings)
Master Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-wai directed this lyrical, dream-like martial arts epic. A famously troubled shoot, the film 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… More Master Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-wai directed this lyrical, dream-like martial arts epic. A famously troubled shoot, the film 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. It nominally centers on Ouyang Feng (Leslie Cheung), who ekes out a lonely existence as an itinerant hired sword. Getting on in years and tormented by memories of a lost love, he also works an agent for other mercenary assassins from his remote desert abode. Ouyang's old friend and fellow swordsman, Huang Yaoshi (Tony Leung Kar-fai, who starred in the The Lover) drowns his lovelorn misery in a magical wine that makes him forget. Later, a mysterious young man named Murong Yang (Brigitte Lin) hires Ouyang to kill his sister's unfaithful suitor, Huang Yaoshi. The following day, that spurned sister, Murong Yin (Lin again), hires Ouyang to protect her dearly beloved. Meanwhile, Hong Qi (pop star Jackie Cheung) finds some redemption for a life of killing by accepting a poor girl's offer to avenge her brother's death -- a task that Ouyang brusquely shunned. In another subplot, a master swordsman (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) is slowly going blind. He agrees to defend a village from horse thieves so that he can afford to go home and see his wife before his eyesight fails completely. This film is one of the most celebrated examples of 1990s Hong Kong cinema: it won multiple awards in its native Hong Kong, along with a Golden Osella for Best Cinematography at the 1994 Venice Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
- Written By
- Kar Wai Wong
- Genres
- Art House & International, Action & Adventure
R,
- In Theaters
- Oct 10, 2008 Wide
- Studio
- Sony Pictures Classics
Critic Reviews
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Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Wong Kar-Wai doesn't supply much of a plot with a narrative engine to pull us through.
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Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
I struggled to engage with the archetypes contained within the images, even with all that meticulously restored golden-yellow sand.
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Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel
Wong Kar Wai seems considerably more out of his depth than other Chinese filmmakers who have slummed in the martial arts genre. This can't compare to Chen Kaige's The Emperor and the Assassin or Yimou Zhang's House of Flying Daggers.
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Peter Howell, Toronto Star
The kicks are more to the head and heart than to the body.
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Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald
Ashes of Time Redux is primarily a sensory experience that deserves to be seen on as big a screen as possible.
See more critic ratings and reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)
Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)
No Featured Audience Ratings Found…
Cast
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Leslie Cheung
as Ou-yang Feng, Ouyang Feng
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Tony Leung Ka Fai
as Huang Yao-shi, Huang Yaoshi
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Brigitte Lin
as Mu-Rong Yang, Mu-Rong Yin, Murong Yin/Mu...
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Maggie Cheung
as Brother's Wife, The Woman
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Jacky Cheung
as Hong Qi, Hung Chi
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Carina Lau
as Peach Blossom
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Charlie Yeung
as Girl, Young Girl
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Bai Li
as Hong Qi's Wife, Hung Chi's Wife
- Tony Leung
