Ashes of Time Redux
| Ashes of Time | |
|---|---|
Film poster
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| Traditional | 東邪西毒 |
| Simplified | 东邪西毒 |
| Mandarin | Dōng Xié, Xī Dú |
| Cantonese | Dung1 Ce4 Sai1 Duk6 |
| Literally | Eastern Evil, Western Poison |
| Directed by | Wong Kar-wai |
| Produced by | Wong Kar-wai Jeffrey Lau Jacky Pang |
| Screenplay by | Wong Kar-wai |
| Story by | Louis Cha |
| Starring |
Leslie Cheung Tony Leung Ka-fai Brigitte Lin Tony Leung Chiu-Wai Carina Lau Charlie Yeung Jacky Cheung Maggie Cheung |
| Music by |
Frankie Chan Roel A. Garcia |
| Cinematography | Christopher Doyle |
| Edited by | Hai Kit-wai Kwong Chi-leung William Chang Patrick Tam |
|
Production
company |
Jet Tone Productions
Beijing Film Studio Tsui Siu Ming Production Scholar Films Pony Canon Inc. |
| Distributed by | Newport Entertainment (HK) HKFM (US) |
|
Release date
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Running time
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100 minutes 93 minutes (Redux) |
| Country | Hong Kong |
| Language | Cantonese |
| Budget | HK$40,000,000 (estimated) |
| Box office | HK$9,023,583 (HK) US$1,912,490 (Redux) |
Ashes of Time 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.
The story is a prequel to the renowned novel The Legend of the Condor Heroes as it imagines the older characters from the book as young men and woman. The film turns one of the most despised antagonists in modern writing (Ouyang Feng) into a protagonist. In the process the movie humanizes Feng while retaining his despicable qualities. Feng, known as the Western Venom, crosses paths with other powerful wuxia masters from the novel: Eastern Heretic (Huang Yaoshi), Northern Beggar (Hong Qigong), and Dugu Qiubai. The movie takes liberty with events that took place before the beginning of the story in Yong's novel and sometimes completely flips 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.
Although it received limited box office success, the parallels Ashes of Time drew between modern ideas of dystopia imposed on a wuxia film has led many critics to cite it as one of Wong Kar-wai's most under-appreciated works.
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.
The story is a prequel to the renown novel The Legend of the Condor Heroes by famous novelist Jin Yong as it follows the book's main antagonist Ouyang Feng as a young man crossing path with other important characters from the book. In the process, the movie humanizes Feng and depicts the events that lead to his venomous and ruthlessness. He crosses path with some of the most powerful wuxia masters in the novel - Eastern Heretic (Huang Yaoshi), and Northern Beggar (Hong Qigong) and Dugu Qiubai; and also introduces new characters not from the novel: the Blind Swordsman, his wife Cherry Blossom, and Girl with a Mule.
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