Fifteen years after it originally appeared on Hong Kong screens, Wong Kar Wai’s Ashes of Time returns, in a brand spanking new version that has been digitally remastered, reedited and had a new musical score recorded, including cello solos from Yo Yo Ma replacing the original electronic version.
.
On first release it is fair to say that Ashes of Time tanked at the box office. Critics called it pretentious, self-important and narratively muddled. In fact there was some argument that a narrative existed at all. Over the next decade those initially negative attitudes softened and slowly but surely people have warmed to the film. Now it is widely regarded as one of the director’s best works, although sadly there has never been a decent release of the film made available on DVD or Laserdisc, but all that now seems set to change.

Whether it was wise or not for Wong to release Redux in almost every other country worldwide before Hong Kong now seems a moot point, as it was welcomed with open arms at this year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival. This in itself was a surprise considering the debacle of a preceding press conference that delayed the screening by nearly half an hour, only for the cast to ignore the audience and leave the moment the lights went down.

However, once you get past the now dazzling visuals, orchestral musical arrangement and the reedited, more linear, storytelling, there is definitely something amiss with this new version of the film. It might seem somewhat petulant to demand more from something that has been so slavishly restored, but there are elements missing that, for me, were what made the original so special. With characters losing their sight and losing their memory, the dreamlike, elliptical nature of the narrative worked beautifully in its original form. As if drifting in and out of consciousness, the audience was asked to piece together the various story strands from what limited information they were being fed, in the same way characters struggled to maintain their focus and carry out their missions as their senses evaporated into the desert wind.

There was an element of spaghetti western to the story of wandering bandits and assassins that carried through into the battle sequences, which were shot like Sergio Leone hit through the neck by a tranquiliser dart. Sadly, these sequences Wong has chosen to remove, making a film already under fire for being light on action for a wuxia piece, almost entirely devoid of martial arts and swordplay.

That said, the story really does benefit from the new order of events. One is finally able to confirm and deny what we thought was happening first time around, and in so doing, it is easier to enjoy and appreciate the almost uniformly excellent performances by the stellar ensemble cast. One wonders to what degree this motivated Wong, as only now can one truly appreciate the late Leslie Cheung’s wonderful portrayal of Feng, the nonchalant amoral agent, handing out contract killings to wandering assassins from his remote saloon in the wilderness. More time is given to Tony Leung Chiu Wai’s blind assassin, perhaps because he is arguably the cast’s biggest draw today, but there is still plenty to enjoy from the likes of Jacky Cheung, Tony Leung Ka Fai, Brigitte Lin (finally in Mandarin!), Carina Lau, Charlie Young and Maggie Cheung.

Alas, the overwhelming feeling after watching Ashes of Time Redux is much the same as when Francis Ford Coppola added the same suffix to his 1979 Vietnam opera, Apocalypse Now. It was a fantastic opportunity to clean up the picture and the audio tracks and for audience members not of an appreciative age way back then to finally see such a visually oriented film on the big screen, but something just doesn’t sit right. Favourite scenes are now paced differently, or gone completely and the mood and tone of the piece has changed. As if being told, after many years, that your favourite piece of abstract art was hanging upside down, or the way your 64-inch plasma TV now makes that much-loved classic look cheap and amateurish in all its over-exposed Hi-def wizardry.

Ashes of Time is a great film, an underappreciated classic that is finally being given the love and attention it deserves. But, Wong, with the best intentions at heart, is treading dangerously close to “doing a George Lucas” and forever soiling his work and tainting it forever for fans of the original. One fears that hope for a simple remastered re-release is all but lost. Sometimes it is better to forget your mistakes and unfulfilled ambitions and let the past remain just that. Redux threatens, however, like Feng’s magic wine, to confine Wong’s original version forever to the ashes of time. James Marsh