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Ashes of Time Redux (1994)

tomatometer

78

Average Rating: 6.6/10
Reviews Counted: 69
Fresh: 54 | Rotten: 15

Wong Kar Wai's redux, with a few slight changes from his 1994 classic, is a feast for the eyes, if a little difficult to follow.

78

Average Rating: 6.7/10
Critic Reviews: 18
Fresh: 14 | Rotten: 4

Wong Kar Wai's redux, with a few slight changes from his 1994 classic, is a feast for the eyes, if a little difficult to follow.

audience

70

liked it
Average Rating: 3.6/5
User Ratings: 9,010

My Rating

Movie Info

Master Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-wai directed this lyrical, dream-like martial arts epic. A famously troubled shoot, the film took two years and 40 million dollars to produce (a shocking sum for a national cinema populated with low-budget quickies) and features a virtual who's-who of the Hong Kong film world. Conceived as a prequel to the popular martial arts novel The Eagle-Shooting Hero by Jin Yong, the movie is less a straightforward action thriller than a visually striking meditation on

R, 1 hr. 35 min.

Art House & International, Action & Adventure

Kar-Wai Wong

Mar 3, 2009

Sony Pictures Classics

Cast

All Critics (69) | Top Critics (18) | Fresh (55) | Rotten (15) | DVD (1)

For this director's cut, Wong has trimmed several minutes and reorganized the narrative according to the passage of seasons, though the plot is still impenetrable.

November 14, 2008 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comment
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Wong Kar-Wai doesn't supply much of a plot with a narrative engine to pull us through.

November 14, 2008 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | Comment
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

I struggled to engage with the archetypes contained within the images, even with all that meticulously restored golden-yellow sand.

November 13, 2008 Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | Comment
Chicago Tribune
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Wong Kar Wai seems considerably more out of his depth than other Chinese filmmakers who have slummed in the martial arts genre. This can't compare to Chen Kaige's The Emperor and the Assassin or Yimou Zhang's House of Flying Daggers.

November 13, 2008 Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel | Comment
Orlando Sentinel
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The kicks are more to the head and heart than to the body.

October 31, 2008 Full Review Source: Toronto Star | Comment
Toronto Star
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Martial-arts fans may find themselves disappointed, but Wong Kar-wai addicts will be delighted.

October 31, 2008 Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | Comment
Globe and Mail
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Como es habitual en el cine de Wong Kar-wai, la línea narrativa no es lineal y en cierto grado implica un desafío para el espectador, quien corre el riesgo de quedar por fuera de una anécdota que encierra su complejidad.

April 18, 2011 Full Review Source: Uruguay Total | Comment
Uruguay Total

It's hard to recommend a film as frustratingly inaccessible as this one, but if you go into the theater expecting a trip to an art gallery, you might be pleasantly surprised.

August 30, 2009 Full Review Source: Washington Times | Comment

Redux clocks in at a slightly shorter running time than any of the previous versions Wong has offered. The tighter edit is a better fit, but ultimately, it's not enough.

March 12, 2009 Full Review Source: Orlando Weekly | Comment
Orlando Weekly

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.

March 12, 2009 Full Review Source: Q Network Film Desk | Comment
Q Network Film Desk

It's like watching paint dry--which isn't very exciting, however pretty the colors.

December 30, 2008 Full Review Source: One Guy's Opinion | Comment
One Guy's Opinion

Ashes of Time Redux, like that line from Hey Jude, takes a sad song and makes it better.

December 19, 2008 Full Review Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | Comment
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Wong Kar Wai could make even a compost heap look as gorgeous as a Vermeer.

December 12, 2008 Full Review Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press | Comment
St. Paul Pioneer Press

I know Kar Wai's got a fanbase, but to me he's equivalent to a recent film school graduate using all of the post-production tricks that he's learned, either to show off what he's learned or to cover up his lack of talent.

December 12, 2008 Full Review Source: Sin Magazine | Comment
Sin Magazine

Wong's film is to be appreciated as poetry on film, an aphorism-filled ode to lovestruck dreamers, and for its beautifully rendered images.

December 12, 2008 Full Review Source: Tulsa World | Comment
Tulsa World

The motion picture as mood ring.

November 26, 2008 Full Review Source: Creative Loafing | Comment
Creative Loafing

Maybe something gets lost in the translation, as often happens, but Wong may be giving us the first Eastern.

November 21, 2008 Comment

Unfathomably gorgeous; perhaps even the most gorgeous film Wong Kar-Wai has yet made, which is not a bit of praise I hand out lightly.

November 20, 2008 Full Review Source: Antagony & Ecstasy | Comment
Antagony & Ecstasy

Beautiful to look at, with painterly compositions, gorgeous, emotionally charged close-ups and slick, elegant transitions. It's all for naught because the story seems no more coherent than the flourishes of a kaleidoscope.

November 20, 2008 Full Review Source: Arizona Daily Star | Comment
Arizona Daily Star

In the end, it's not unlike a Jackson Pollock painting. No matter how close or how far away you stand from it, some people just get it and some people don't.

November 14, 2008 Comment
Kansas City Star

Even drastically altered as it has been in Ashes of Time Redux, the strengths and weaknesses of the film are the same.

November 14, 2008 Full Review Source: Movie Retriever | Comment
Movie Retriever

The film remains an acquired taste at best.

November 13, 2008 Full Review Source: Deseret News, Salt Lake City | Comment
Deseret News, Salt Lake City
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Ashes of Time Redux

certainly one of the most beautiful films i have ever seen. but honestly, what the hell just happened?

August 1, 2008
rubystevens
Stella Dallas

Super Reviewer

No doubt a well made film and with great cinematography. However it was a little confusing at times to follow the story and who were friends and who were enemies. The big disappointment for me was I had expected something along the lines of Hero or House of flying daggers. Unfortunately this is a different type of film

November 13, 2009
Deano78

Super Reviewer

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Latest News for Ashes of Time Redux

October 13, 2008:
Wong Kar-wai Talks Ashes of Time Redux
Wong Kar-wai has just debuted the "definitive" version of his 1994 film "Ashes of Time," and to...

October 9, 2008:
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Foreign Titles

  • Ashes of Time Redux (Dung che sai duk redux) (CA)
  • Les Cendres du temps (FR)
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