When he realized that the negative for one of his most sublime ’90s features was in danger of falling apart, Wong Kar-wai did not look back in anger. Then again, given that the Hong Kong auteur of Chungking Express and In the Mood for Love fame is never seen without his sunglasses, there’d have been no way to tell what he was feeling. In any case, Wong and his team spent nearly a decade refurbishing Ashes of Time — his groundbreaking 1994 blend of stylish martial-arts action and moody art-house abstraction — before presenting the gorgeous results at a triumphant screening at Cannes in May. He spoke with EYE WEEKLY when Ashes of Time Redux had its North American bow at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.
What inspired you to come back to Ashes of Time and fix it up?
We had to do it now because if we didn’t, there would be no more film. In 1998 during the Asian financial crisis, the lab where we stored our negative went bankrupt so on very short notice we had to retrieve all the materials. Then we realized the movie was in pieces so it was impossible to make a complete film again. At that point, we knew we had to do something to restore this film. We tried to get as much material as we could from our overseas distributors, and also from Chinatown cinemas.
Did you get all the pieces you needed?
There were certain things that could not be fixed so this had to be more than a restoration. Even so, my mindset is that I should keep it as it was supposed to be. Otherwise it would be like opening a Pandora’s box — I might as well start shooting another film. The other reason we wanted to do this is that Ashes of Time was a very important film for us. It is the first film that we produced. It is the film that made us realize how important it is to work as independents. Without this film, there would be no Chunking Express, no In the Mood for Love. So we have to keep this film.
The biggest change is the revised musical score, which adds the contributions of other musicians (including Yo-Yo Ma) to elements of Frankie Chan’s original score. Why did that get such an overhaul?
I like the original score a lot because it’s pretty wild. It’s like Tangerine Dream vs Mark Knopfler — those are the references I gave Frankie. I told him to do something less traditional. Some people told me this film is like Shakespeare vs Sergio Leone in Chinese. I thought that was a good reference, too. When we were working on the new version, I thought, “We’re not going to touch the picture but we could do something with the sound.” Some of the original recording is not very good quality now. I said, “Why don’t we just have a bunch of young musicians from Beijing do a rearrangement of the original score?” We also had Yo-Yo Ma in to play some of the tracks.
The film is certainly different, but in the 14 years since Ashes of Time was first released, do you think the audience has changed as well?
I think so. For one thing, they are more knowledgeable about this genre. They are familiar with it because of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero. And they also have better knowledge about the cast. I still remember when we presented the film in Venice in 1994 how the audience mixed up the characters — they thought Tony [Leung] and Leslie [Cheung] were playing the same person. I don’t think that confusion exists now.
It’s especially moving to see Leslie again. [Cheung committed suicide in 2003.] This is one of his finest moments.
I agree. The more you look at Ashes of Time, the more you realize how many different details and different layers he brought to his performance. It’s one of his best.
As for yourself, does watching the movie inspire you to make another with this kind of grandeur?
There’s a chance. I would love to.
How about another martial-arts movie?
Maybe. We’re also working on a project called The Grand Master. It’s about the teacher of Bruce Lee. Even though it happened only in the late ’50s and early ’60s and not 100 years ago, it’s still a martial arts drama.