ashes of time redux

no.116 Ashes of Time Redux

Finally, we see Kar Wai Wong with a real narrative structure and dialogue! It took him dedicating himself to a book adaptation to do so and I really enjoyed it. Yes, I love him for his free flow, not knowing where he's going next, but I also know he's been a successful screen and tv writer and I wanted to have the chance to experience that (I'm pretty sure I can't get my hands on a translated or subtitled copies.) Although fully scripted, it still is cut up like WWK films and follows his desire to show the complexities of love.

He compares The Eagle Shooting Heroes to the Lord of the Rings, in it's scope and fantasty. I'm not sure if it's really considered wuxia, it's not as showy as other films that crossed over into Western audiences. There are two really great scenes which lean this way, where Yin/Yang has to sword practice against her/himself in the water which is breathtaking and when Little Tony has gone blind and is taking what should be a group of bandits but what appears to be a whole village.

I loved that in Redux, they chose to put in the seasonal titles, although Doyle's work showed us, with the help of the Chinese Almanac, which the book leans on heavily to push time, we're able to match the narrator with nature's shift with time.

Christopher Doyle, as always, is utterly amazing. I wish, for one day, I could see the world through his eyes, what a day that would be! The locations were so remote into the Chinese desert - the widest lens just couldn't capture it's beauty.