Dung che sai duk (1994)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Director:

Kar Wai Wong

Writers:

Louis Cha (novel)
Kar Wai Wong (writer)

Release Date:

18 November 1995 (South Korea)

Genre:

Action | Drama

Plot:

Ou-yang Feng (Leslie Cheung) lives in the middle of a desert, where he acts as a middle man to various swordsmen in ancient China...

Plot Keywords:

Martial Arts | Desert | Cut Off Finger | China | Alienation

Awards:

10 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Brigitte Lin	...	Mu-rong Yin / Mu-rong Yang
Leslie Cheung	...	Ou-yang Feng
Maggie Cheung	...	The Woman
Tony Leung Chiu Wai	...	Blind Swordsman
Jacky Cheung	...	Hung Chi
Tony Leung Ka Fai	...	Huang Yao-shi
Li Bai	...	Hung Chi's Wife
Carina Lau	...	Peach Blossom
Charlie Yeung	...	Young Girl
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Joey Wang	...	(scenes deleted)

Also Known As:

Ashes of Time (Hong Kong: English title)
Dong xie xi du (Hong Kong: Mandarin title)

Runtime:

100 min | 93 min (Redux version)

Country:

Hong Kong | China | Taiwan

Language:

Cantonese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Singapore:PG | South Korea:15

Filming Locations:

China

Company:

Scholar Productions

Trivia:

This film had an exhausting effect on Kar Wai Wong. While on hiatus during the editing process he wrote and shot _Chung hing sam lam (1994)_ (Chungking Express) to "clear his head".

Quotes:

The Woman: Why didn't you let him know I live here?
Huang Yao-shi: You didn't ask me to.
The Woman: [sobbing] You are too honest!

Movie Connections:

Edited into Ashes of Time Redux (2008)

Slow, beautiful and intense... best viewed if you are alone

Although I enjoy them, I seldom re-watch slow and introspective movies. Ashes of Time is the exception to the rule, as it haunts me so much that I have already given it three viewings! It may be because of the wonderful pictures, the essential yet poignant dialogues or the grave & epic music, nevertheless Ashes of Time is a fascinating movie!

Set in a tavern in the middle of the desert, it tells us stories of different swordsmen and deals with the theme of unrequited love. All the people, in fact, had to face a rejection.. and now strive to find a way to overcome the delusion and go on with their life. Swordsmanship is mostly viewed as an outlet to bring out the inner passions and frustrations.

The protagonist, Ouyang Feng [Leslie Cheung] is one of those swordsmen, who left his lady [Maggie Cheung] and his village to pursue fame and glory, convinced that she would have waited for him to return. Now instead he faces loneliness and the fact that she has married his elder brother.

The most peculiar aspect of the movie is the pictures, so beautifully shot that each still can make a wonderful portrait. Even the battles, rather than being filmed continuously, are rendered as a sequence of separate shots, thus remaining more indelibly impressed in our head. Indeed, the movie also focuses about memory (whom the movie title probably refers to) and its power to keep alive moments of the past, that otherwise would perish in the flow of time. Highly recommended! 9/10