Wednesday 14 May 2014

Ashes of Time Redux (AKA Dung che sai duk)
Dir: Wong Kar Wai
1994
**
Ashes of Time feels like an amateur dramatics production but with beautiful cinematography. It's a bizarre follow up to the brilliant Chungking Express. Kar Wai Wong's style is unique and is put to good use here but the script lacks the punch it needs (and I'm not just saying that because of the awful English translated subtitles). It's confusing and distracting, it makes me wonder why he didn't just make a silent film, it would have been far more enjoyable. I find that the script often gets in the way of his beautiful work but the usual tenderness, the passion and the humour usually found (and enjoyed by many) in his films is absent here. It's also the first Wong Kar Wai film that I found myself a little bored with, which I never thought possible for such a great director.

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