Ashes of Time (1994)

Ashes of Time (Chinese: 東邪西毒) is a 1994 Hong Kong film written and directed by Wong Kar-wai, and inspired by characters from Jin Yong’s novel The Legend of the Condor Heroes. Ashes of Time grossed HK$9,023,583 during its Hong Kong run.

Background

The film’s story is a prequel to the novel The Legend of the Condor Heroes as it imagines the older characters when they were younger. It focuses on the main antagonist (Ouyang Feng) and humanizes him into a protagonist while retaining his despicable qualities. Feng, known as the Western Venom, crosses paths with the other powerful wuxia masters. Their backstories are depicted with great liberty and sometimes completely subvert the intended meaning from the novel. During the film’s long-delayed production, Wong produced a parody of the same novel with the same cast titled The Eagle Shooting Heroes. Because it received limited box office success, the parallels Ashes of Time drew between modern ideas of dystopia imposed on a wuxia film have led critics to cite it as one of Wong Kar-wai’s most under- appreciated works. In the 1960s, King Hu’s Come Drink with me (Da zui xia) brought Wu Xia Pian to a superior artistic level.

Wing Chun (1994) Biography, Plot, Release, Reception, Trailer.

Wong grew up immersed in Wu Xia culture. In 1972, The Way of the Dragon (Meng long guo jiang), movie directed by Bruce Lee, persuade Jiang Hu culture to the global stage. In the mid-1990, Wu xia pian entered to a new stage. Wong selects characters from “new school” Wu xia novel writer Jin Yong’s work, Legend of the Condor Heroes, and created an unprecedented Wu xia story. Due to the original prints being lost, Wong re-edited and re-scored the film in 2008 for future theater, DVD and Blu-ray releases under the title Ashes of Time Redux. The film was reduced from 100 to 93 minutes. Both the original and Redux versions can still be found on Asian markets, while only the Redux version is available to western markets. Several criticisms of the Redux version have been noted, such as poor image quality and color mastering from the source material, cropping and removal of portions of the bottom image, poor English translations, and the re-scoring.

Plot

Set in ancient China, the film consists of five short stories each featuring a main character from the novel; with the young Ouyang Feng serving as narrator and the common link.

Opening

The story begins with Ouyang Feng – known as the Western Venom due to his mercilessness and hailing from the western province – effortlessly toying with and disposing of a group of henchmen. He narrates that he is venomous because he is enraged with jealousy. The story flashes back to a time when Feng is younger and working as a broker for assassins in a remote, desert region. He eagerly waits for his friend Huang, who visits him once a year around this time.