Cheng Zhigu Movies
Master Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-Wai directed this lyrical, dream-like martial arts epic. A famously troubled shoot, the film took two years and 40 million dollars to produce (a shocking sum for a national cinema populated with low-budget quickies) and features a virtual who's who of the Hong Kong film world. Conceived as a prequel to the popular martial arts novel The Eagle-Shooting Hero by Jin Yong, the movie is less a straightforward action thriller than a visually striking meditation on memory and love. It nominally centers on Ouyang Feng (Leslie Cheung), who ekes out a lonely existence as an itinerant hired sword. Getting on in years and tormented by memories of a lost love, he also works an agent for other mercenary assassins from his remote desert abode. Ouyang's old friend and fellow swordsman, Huang Yaoshi (Tony Leung Kar-Fai, who starred in the The Lover) drowns his lovelorn misery in a magical wine that makes him forget. Later, a mysterious young man named Murong Yang (Brigitte Lin) hires Ouyang to kill his sister's unfaithful suitor, Huang Yaoshi. The following day, that spurned sister, Murong Yin (Lin again), hires Ouyang to protect her dearly beloved. Meanwhile, Hong Qi (pop star Jacky Cheung) finds some redemption for a life of killing by accepting a poor girl's offer to avenge her brother's death -- a task that Ouyang brusquely shunned. In another subplot, a master swordsman (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai) is slowly going blind. He agrees to defend a village from horse thieves so that he can afford to go home and see his wife before his eyesight fails completely. This film is one of the most celebrated examples of 1990s Hong Kong cinema: it won multiple awards in its native Hong Kong, along with a Golden Osella for Best Cinematography at the 1994 Venice Film Festival.
In the years following Ashes of Time's initial theatrical release, the original negatives were lost and multiple versions of the film began to crop up all across the globe. As a result, director Wong Kar-wai longed to compile these various versions into a restored, remastered, and definitive final cut. With Ashes of Time Redux, the director restructures the film according to seasons, effectively clarifying the central narratives, and digitally colorizes the film to render cinematographer Christopher Doyle's masterful imagery all the more lavish and intoxicatingly gorgeous. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
In the years following Ashes of Time's initial theatrical release, the original negatives were lost and multiple versions of the film began to crop up all across the globe. As a result, director Wong Kar-wai longed to compile these various versions into a restored, remastered, and definitive final cut. With Ashes of Time Redux, the director restructures the film according to seasons, effectively clarifying the central narratives, and digitally colorizes the film to render cinematographer Christopher Doyle's masterful imagery all the more lavish and intoxicatingly gorgeous. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leslie Cheung, Tony Leung Kar-Fai, (more)
- 1995
Two long-time female friends in love with same man form the basis for this Chinese romantic saga. The story begins after the 1949 Communist takeover in China. Prior to that, the two women Xiao and Qiuyi had been prostitutes. Qiuyi was a proud woman with high ideals. Xiao was born and raised in a bordello, the Red Happiness Inn. Whereas Qiuyi is strong and independent, Xiao is nervous and dependent upon others. After the takeover, the women left the brothel and were to be rehabilitated. Qiuyi escapes and begins living with the youthful, wealthy Lao Pu, a former customer. She gets pregnant but is too proud to let on. Instead she cloisters herself in a Buddhist nunnery and ignores Lao's pleas to come home. The Buddhist discover her pregnancy and evict her. She then miscarries. Meanwhile, Xiao completes her rehab and works in a silk factory. There she meets Lao who has lost all his wealth and now works. They have and affair. She gets pregnant. On their wedding day, Qiuyi appears carrying the yellow umbrella of separation. After the wedding, Lao and Xiao begin having terrible fights. He misses Qiuyi. He chooses a radical solution to his problem. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1994
This film, set in rural China offers Westerners a rare glimpse of Chinese rural life. It focuses on the life and loves of Zyuko, a Japanese teenaged girl abandoned in China immediately after World War II. She ends up marrying the Chinese officer who adopted her. Together they set out on foot to an isolated village in central Yunnan province. Her husband does not survive the trip and she is forced by tribal custom to marry his younger brother, Xia Lou. Eventually she accepts the marriage and settles down to a happy life filled with children and friends. In 1949, during the Cultural Revolution, Triumphant Communists attempt to deport her. After 40 years in China, she returns to Japan to attend an emotional class reunion. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lu Xiuling, Lin Jianhua, (more)
Old Han (Huang Zongluo) was a janitor for many years at the Peking Opera. While he was there, he witnessed countless productions, and saw an equally impressive number of rehearsals. Now that he is retired, he discovers that he has a common bond with a group of senior citizens he meets in the park: they all share a passion for Peking Opera. They decide to rent a space in order to amuse themselves by putting on scenes and the like. What could be more natural than putting Old Han in charge of their preparations? However, he fails to understand the amateur nature of the operation, and offends the hobbyists grievously with his stern, disciplinarian maner. Things come to a head when they discover that the space they have been renting is going to be torn down soon. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
