I know…My Blueberry Nights was terrible, but I don’t think anyone should stop hoping unless his next movie is a disaster too. Maybe the film is just a way for him to disinterest himself from the romance genre and do something else instead.

Anyways, as for Ashes of Time and its Redux, all I can say is one is probably the quiet WKW while the other is the melodramatic in-your-face WKW. I have not seen Ashes of Time Redux, but I can totally imagine it as a post-In the Mood for Love kind of film. I have, though, seen the original in all its glory. I loved the score, which is Ennio Morricone gone wild. I liked the way it explored loneliness and regret. I also liked the cinematography of the original more than the recent version(I saw the trailer), because it had a sort of technicolor feel that was excellent with all those rich, vibrant colors. Anyways, I’m just glad Wong’s early career is starting to attract attention.

So any implications that he consciously removed aspects from the film for any reasons other than ones made out of necessity, only add to the confusion.

http://roninonempty.blogspot.com/2007/09/spoiler-review-secret.html

Regards.

That, to me, is the essence of the difference between the two versions.

It’s very weird for me to see AoTR on the shelf at my local Wal-Mart. I mean, they don’t have good foreign films to begin with and seeing a non-Dragon Dynasty-type Chinese classic on the shelf is a nice, weird feeling.

Maybe some hillbilly will get enlightened now.

What’s with the hyperbole? I didn’t “condemn” the score at all — How could I? I acknowledged that I didn’t listen to the whole thing! All I was saying about the original score is that I noticed that certain scenes that I stopped to watch didn’t sound as good as I remembered — certain cues sounded a little antiquated, distracting, or plain cheesy to me in comparison to what I had just finished watching.

For you, the new score is a disaster since it doesn’t go “overboard” (to use your term), and allows viewers “to draw their own conclusions.” I just don’t see that as a negative. To be perfectly honest, I don’t prefer one over the other; I think both approaches are valid and make for interesting cinema. Of course, I don’t expect everyone to feel the same way.

For me, Ashes of Time Redux is a cleaner, prettier, and more tonally consistent film than its already wonderful 1994 predecessor. With a restored and reworked color palette, Ashes of Time Redux could fit right alongside not just In the Mood for Love and 2046, but more contemporary wuxia films in the post-Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon/Hero era. In other words, it no longer resembles a Ching Siu-Tung or Tsui Hark film from the early 1990s. In some ways, I suppose that’s a real shame for more than a few viewers, but overall, I think the film is better served for it.

upon rereading it, it sounds like you’re making more of a comparison of the picture quality. the word “tonally” can also mean story tone and since in the mood for love and 2046 also have significant STORY tonal changes from his earlier canon (less kinetic) i thought you were speaking of that.

but this is the one part of your post that i vehemently disagree with:

“I remember the original score as bombastic, and the new version follows suit at all the appropriate times as far as I can tell. However, during the few scenes of the original that I did stop to watch, I was struck by the fact that the original score often felt antiquated, distracting, or just plain cheesy. Thus, I would hesitantly say that there’s nothing wrong with the more respectable sounding Redux soundtrack.”

i wished to god wkw wouldve just orchestrated the entire score in redux instead of fiddling with it to fit the 2046/in the mood for love vibe. the score was already perfect and despite what you say in your reply backtracking a bit, you did condemn the score as “plain cheesy, antiquated, distracting.” the score was one of the best things about ashes of time. brought it up to the next level. the two scores cant even be compared cuz the first one is so much superior. it was swooping, epic, melancholic and tragic — everything the characters and the image communicated to us. it wasnt the sound of crickets chirping, and a violin or whatever it was coming in representing the one character and his one emotion. it was all of it pouring out into our ears, the lushness, the bigness, like the ocean that maggie watched, or the endless sands that the characters traversed, or the undying love they all felt. overboard is the only way to go for a movie like this.

this is what i believe has made wkw into a boring filmmaker. theres no love for life anymore. no daring, no excitement. its all composed. it worked well for in the mood for love, but wheres that bold experimental filmmaker anymore? he’s no longer pushing the boundaries. that said, wkw is the greatest director ever for his previous body of work. my favorite hands down.

To be clear, I’m not even saying the REDUX is a better film, but I do like it. Again, I may say that it is “cleaner, prettier, and more tonally consistent film than its already wonderful 1994 predecessor,” but do I prefer it? Not necessarily. There are some changes I like, and some changes I don’t. The whole comparison between DAYS OF BEING WILD and ASHES OF TIME was meant to illustrate that. Logically, if there was a DAYS OF BEING WILD REDUX, the scene with Tony Leung should be cut since it introduces a new character with a minute or two remaining in the film, but if Wong Kar-Wai actually went back and cut Tony out of the picture, I’d probably miss it. And that’s kinda the point with ASHES OF TIME REDUX — Wong Kar-Wai has arguably made a tighter film, but in some ways, something was lost in the process. Still, I can appreciate this new cut for what it’s trying to do and what it accomplishes. For me, it remains a great movie; it’s just different.

I personally missed the excised fight scenes - as short as they were, they contained action and beauty that I would’ve liked to see on the big screen, not to mention proving that Ouyang Feng is, in fact, the man.

i actually think the latter movies from wkw’s canon beginning with in the mood for love (yes, i said it) have suffered from this similar lack of energy and life. while i appreciate in the mood for love, the latter two - blueberry nights and 2046 - seem rehashed and sterile. this is the same for redux.

at first i thought i’d agree with this review when you said the original made sense story wise but then you make a u-turn and say how redux is better. to me, i think the confusion caused by the original is far more effective dramatically than the new one. crucial story is revealed when it can produce the most effect - like when leslie visits carrie lau. cant remember whathappened in the redux but i think it was separate from leslie’s narrative growth sequence which made it come off as unnecessary.

im stream of thoughting this now and again with the music and carrie lau when she’s on the horse, before it was very sensual as she engaged in touching the horse as she thought of her lover but with the new minimalist score i felt like an observer peeping through instead of being with her.

anyway i suggest you watch the original in its entirety and at 1x before you make any review comparing the two. quite offended actually that you’d attempt to do so.