Online Film review: From Ashes to Ashes, Trace of the good old days ----- Ashes of time

  

   “Ashes of Time” is one of the famous movies which was written and directed by Wong Kar Wai. It was first broadcasted in 1994 and was remade in 2008. The main characters of Ashes of time, Ouyang Feng, Huang Yaoshi, Hong Qigong, are basically based on the story of Jin Yong, The Legend of the Condor Heroes. Although the main characters are based on the novel, the story plot of Ashes of time is no longer related to it. In fact, according to Mr. Ip Kenneth, Ashes of time is the last “swordsmen film” (武俠片) of the golden period of such genre in the late 80s that experienced the peak during the broadcast of the Swordsman II (笑傲江湖 II：東方不敗).

  In this movie, Wong Kar Wai is trying to deliver the evergreen theme of him----- traces of the good old days. Cherishing the old memories seems to be the everlasting theme of the Wong Kar Wai movies and it is no doubt that the same idea can also be found in Ashes of Time.

  “Ashes of time” is the first “swordsmen film” of Wong Kar Wai which is basically based on the novel of Jin Yong. Although the Chinese name of the movie“東邪西毒”is named follow the two main characters of the film, the Venomous West and the Malicious East ,which were Ouyang Feng and Huang Yaoshi respectively, the English name of the film was named as the “Ashes of time” which is not linked with the Chinese name at all means. The English name of the movie, however, gives a clue of the mind of Wong Kai Wai about this movie as it points out the importance of “time”. It seems that Wong Kar Wai want to memorize the “time” which from the story plot and the performance of the actors, the “old time”.

  In the movie, the relations between the characters seem to be complicated but in fact, it is all about the memories of the characters. In the film, all the main characters could not get a way out of their old days. Ouyang Feng could not escape from the memory of him sister in law, Murong Yang was trapped by her memory with Huang Yaoshi, the sister in law of Ouyang Feng was still in love with Ouyang Feng even she married Ouyang’s brother and so as the other characters in the movie. From the story plot, it is easy to find out that although there were some differences of what they are tracing for, it is all about the attachment of the old days.

  In 2008, Wong Kar Wai, reedited the film. Besides the color tone and the background music of the film, the biggest difference from the original version is the much heavier proportion of Leslie Cheung’s performance in the new version when comparing to the old one. In such way, would it be another way for Wong Kar Wai to trace for the memory of the good old days?

 (513 words)
Yeung Tsz Yui Tiffany (10553830 / 21238533)

Reference:

1.      Wikipedia: Ashes of Time, 2014. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashes_of_Time#Cast [16 April 2014].