This week on the Film at Lincoln Center podcast, tune into a conversation with Wong Kar Wai, cinematographer Christopher Doyle, and actress Brigitte Lin from the 46th NYFF in 2008, moderated by J. Hoberman. Watch Ashes of Time Redux in our Wong Kar Wai retrospective, available nationwide here.
A film whose complicated production took such a toll on Wong that he wrote and shot Chungking Express during its editing process, Ashes of Time Redux is a hallucinatory wuxia like no other. First released in 1994 and then re-edited and re-scored in 2008, Wong’s time-slipping picaresque takes loose inspiration from Jin Yong’s novel The Legend of the Condor Heroes, focusing on a lovesick, embittered mercenary (Leslie Cheung), who acts as an agent for other swordsmen of fortune. Working with regular production designer William Chang, cinematographer Christopher Doyle, and a superb ensemble (Brigitte Lin, Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung, and Jacky Cheung), Wong constructs an intricate, enigmatic vision of ancient warriors ensnared by the play of time and memory. An NYFF46 selection.
