Preserving the past

Wong Kar-Wai restores a classic
with Ashes of Time Redux

MEMORY, REGRET AND MARTIAL ARTS:
Ashes of Time Redux

by MARK SLUTSKY

Ashes of Time has always had a special place in the hearts of Wong Kar-Wai fans. Made in 1994, Ashes explores many of the themes Wong has returned to, almost obsessively, over his career: regret, longing, memory, the past. And like all of his films, it’s got an entrancing, smeared aesthetic, an impressionistic wash of colour and sound.

But unlike most of Wong’s films, set among the bustling urban landscapes of Hong Kong, Shanghai or Buenos Aires, Ashes is set in (and was filmed around) the Gobi desert, a very different environment than that of, say, Chungking Express. It’s also Wong’s only wuxia, or martial arts film, though it’s a very particular interpretation of the genre.

Notwithstanding its qualities as a film, Ashes has also gained cult status in North America thanks to its relative unavailability. Never officially released over here, Ashes could, until now, only be seen on bootleg videos and deteriorating 16mm prints. As it turns out, the film was in pretty bad shape back in Hong Kong as well, and so Wong set out to produce a restored version of the film. Ashes of Time Redux is a gorgeous restoration; it’s more or less the same film, although the soundtrack has been altered somewhat with the addition of some new orchestral pieces to Frankie Chan’s original synth score (the original sound tracks were in too poor condition to use as they were). It’s great to finally be able to watch this film in theatres in the condition it was meant to be seen in.

PIECING TOGETHER THE PICTURE: Wong in 1994

Speaking to the Mirror at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, Wong never takes off his ever-present pair of sunglasses, but he’s a surprisingly warm and friendly presence, with a real sense of humour (for some reason, I was expecting some kind of austere auteur type). When informed that the press screenings of Ashes were at 9 a.m. on a Sunday, he jokes, “It’s not the best time to see this film, at nine o’clock in the morning. But maybe it’s kind of a hangover film!”

Wong had no official master negative to base the new version on. “All the materials were in very bad shape, because of all this crisis in 1998,” he says. “The lab where we stored our negative had to shut down. It was on short notice, and when we retrieved all the materials, we noticed that they were actually in pieces. So I knew we had to do something, or else this film would exist only on DVD or old prints.”

Sifting through history

The five-year process took the team around the world. “We couldn’t find the complete film in Hong Kong, so we had to look for extra material in Taiwan and other overseas distributors, including Chinatown cinemas,” says Wong. “It happens that in the last 10 years, you see all these Chinatown cinemas get shut down. In San Francisco and in New York, there are big Chinese communities there and Chinatown cinemas, but they almost don’t know how to deal with this material. When we visited those warehouses, there were hundreds of copies of old movies—it was like a history of Hong Kong cinema.”

Unlike some filmmakers I could mention, Wong avoided the temptation to mess around with the film, beyond the re-soundtracking. “You have to stop yourself from doing that,” he says. “Otherwise you might as well just make a new film. Because it’s just like a Pandora’s box. You just tell yourself that hey, you are not here to Photoshop your past. You should keep it as it was.”

It’s clear that returning to Ashes has deep personal meaning for Wong. “In fact, it is a very moving experience for me,” he says. “As you know, some of the cast, like Leslie [Cheung] has passed away, and Brigitte [Lin] has retired. The film actually tells you a lot about Hong Kong cinema in the ’90s, about the industry, about the energy, about the possibilities, and all the talent. And also, it foretells what’s happening now, 10 years later. Because in ’94, shooting in [mainland] China was not normal, very rare, risky. And big budget martial arts films were not the norm. But now, it’s become like the norm, and shooting in China has become one of the main things for Hong Kong cinema.”

“I felt very bad because most of my films are in good shape and this film is especially special to us,” he continues. “Because this is the first film that we produced ourselves, and through this film we learned how to work independently. Without this film, there won’t be a Chungking Express, there won’t be an In the Mood for Love. So I just wanted to make sure that this film, it’s safe.”