The film, which was Wong’s third, was originally shot over six months in 1992, and it proved to be so difficult to piece together in postproduction that Wong left it for a while to shoot Chungking Express (1994), the film that would first gain him significant attention in the West. When Ashes of Time was released in 1994, Wong considered it unfinished, thus we get the Redux version, which features a digitally restored image that heightens the intensity of the film’s colors, an enhanced score by Yo-Yo Ma, and possibly some new footage or at least rearrangement of the existing footage. The fact that Wong would return to one of his early films at this stage in his career suggests that, like the memories that torture his protagonists, it was something he simply could not let go.

The plot is a tangle of flashbacks and interlocking stories and interconnected characters, and a single viewing of the film will most likely result in a sense of visual dazzle and not much else. The main character is Ou-yang Feng (Leslie Cheung), who specializes in “solving problems.” He runs a small tavern in the middle of a desert where people bring him their problems, which usually involve the need to have someone killed. Ou-yang also narrates the film, which takes place over five clearly marked seasons, and his words embody many of the themes that have come to obsess Wong Kar Wai’s films, most notably loneliness, disconnect, and especially the burden of romantic memories (one character says quite directly that the “root of man’s problems” is “memory”).

There is more to the story--much more, in fact, including murderous siblings, a blind swordsman played by Tony Leung Chiu Wai, and various lost loves--but Wong Kar Wai’s narrative approach is so frequently confounding and elliptical that at some point it is easy to disassociate from the story and simply drink in the images, free from context or meaning. The story’s events take place during a drought, so the images (shot by Wong’s longtime cinematographer Christopher Doyle) are scorched tones of yellow and brown, suggesting both heat and dryness, set against bleary blue skies that look like dripping watercolors. Interiors are often lit with colored lights, casting characters in various shades of unnatural blues and greens that give them the appearance of sitting beneath neon signs. The film’s imagery is its most striking asset, creating an impressionistic sense of both vastness and intimacy that frequently overwhelms the characters and their problems.

Copyright ©2009 James Kendrick

Thoughts? E-mail James Kendrick

All images copyright © Sony Pictures Home Entertainment