Dung che sai duk (1994)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Kar Wai Wong

Writers:

Louis Cha (novel)
Kar Wai Wong (screenplay)

Release Date:

18 November 1995 (South Korea)

Genre:

Drama | Action

Plot:

A broken-hearted hit man moves to the desert where he finds skilled swordsmen to carry out his contract killings.

Plot Keywords:

Swordsman | China | One Man Army | Donkey | Wuxia

Awards:

10 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Brigitte Lin	...	Mu-rong Yin / Mu-rong Yang
Leslie Cheung	...	Ou-yang Feng
Maggie Cheung	...	The Woman
Tony Leung Chiu Wai	...	Blind Swordsman
Jacky Cheung	...	Hung Chi
Tony Leung Ka Fai	...	Huang Yao-shi
Li Bai	...	Hung Chi's Wife
Carina Lau	...	Peach Blossom
Charlie Yeung	...	Young Girl
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Joey Wang	...	(scenes deleted)

Also Known As:

Ashes of Time Redux (International: English title) (International: English title) (recut version)
Ashes of Time (Hong Kong: English title)
Dong xie xi du (Hong Kong: Mandarin title)
Dong xie xi du zhongji ban (China: Mandarin title) (recut version)
Dung che sai duk redux (Hong Kong: Cantonese title) (recut version)

MPAA:

Rated R for some violence.

Runtime:

100 min | 93 min (Redux version)

Country:

Hong Kong | China | Taiwan

Language:

Cantonese | Mandarin

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital (Redux version) | Mono

Certification:

Singapore:PG | South Korea:15 | UK:15 | USA:R (Redux version) | Canada:13+ (Quebec) (Redux version) | Canada:14A (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba/Ontario) (Redux version) | Canada:AA (Ontario) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Hong Kong:II | Singapore:NC-16 (DVD rating) (Redux version) | Hong Kong:IIB (Redux version) | Finland:K-15 | Australia:M | Argentina:13

Filming Locations:

China

Company:

Beijing Film Studio

Trivia:

This film had an exhausting effect on Kar Wai Wong. While on hiatus during the editing process he wrote and shot Chung Hing sam lam (1994) (Chungking Express) to "clear his head".

Quotes:

Ou-yang Feng: [to a potential customer] For all these years, there must be some people who you don't want to mention or you don't want to meet again. Because they did something really awful to you. Maybe you want to kill them. But you dare not. In fact, it's really easy to kill a person. Not difficult at all. I have a friend who is great at solving problems. But he has been a little short lately. If you can give him some money, he must be able to solve your problems. Indeed you can think my proposal over. But be quick!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Yeopgijeogin geunyeo (2001)

Haunting, beautiful and rather wonderful - one of Wong Kar-Wei's very best films

'Ashes of Time' is the rarest of Wong Kar Wei's films and best remembered as the one that so confounded him that he went off and made 'Chungking Express' to clear his mind before finishing it. Actually, it's worth remembering in its own right, as he brings his uniquely romantic take on the world to the fantasy swordplay genre with the expected unexpected results. There are sword fights, most of them pretty good, but the fantasy is kept to the bare minimum with the focus on the emotional cost of being a professional killer. Love is lost and so are memories, vengeance is sought and denied, characters meet but fail to connect, secrets are kept and regrets shared, all filtered through Leslie Cheung's inn on the edge of the desert where he acts as agent for killers for hire. The interest here isn't in action but reasons, and in the emotional cost of pursuing a life of violence, all captured via his usual dreamlike imagery and poetic confessional narration. Part Hong Kong, part European, part Leone (acknowledged/plagiarised at times in the score), not everything works, but the parts that do are quite magnificent, whether it's a woman tracing her hand over the sleeping body of a man who is not her lover or the curiously memorable shots of the horse thieves waiting their turn in a battle.

It can get confusing – not only do the characters sometimes blur into each other but he even hires both Tony Leungs for key roles in the same film while Brigitte Lin plays dual roles and, just to add to the clarity, the film's chronology is very misleading – but it's worth bearing with. A film I'll definitely be returning to, and I suspect more than just the once.