Ashes of Time Redux

This 1994 film by Kar Wai Wong gets the full re-release treatment with a digitally enhanced upgrade. About seven minutes have been taken out but you'd have to be an expert in Asian cinema to tell what was trimmed. Ashes of Time Redux (Dung che sai duk redux) has to be one of a handful of contemporary films that you could just turn the sound off and fall under the spell of its images. Yet the soundtrack deserves praise on its own, ranging from 80s genre style synthesizer to wind sound effects to lyrical interludes more in tempo with the subject.
Kar Wai even produced another version of the source material with the same cast (The Eagle Shooting Heroes), a talented line-up that includes Brigitte Lin, Leslie Cheung, Maggie Cheung, and Tony Leung. Add the contributions of cinematographer Christopher Doyle at his most evocative and action coordinator Sammo Hung and the combined chi is unbeatable.
In a series of solarized wide wind-swept images we meet the cast interacting in a non-linear plot. There's unrequited love, there's heroism and stoic stances. Most of all there's a hypnotic feel to the images that lulls you into alpha waves. Shot after shot depicts text book examples of chiaroscuro lighting that provoke romantic, or, as the case may be, loveless moods. The camera caresses the actor's faces as they stand next to light shimmering off water, or being reflected by the intertwined strands of a birdcage. The exteriors provide high contrast of stark desert scenes, usually with a bright colored tree or other figure offsetting the earthy tones. Likewise a close-up of one femme's face in anguish embellishes the redness of her lips with the tragic irony of jealousy.
I could go on about the actual plot but I'm not sure if I understand it, so discombobulated is the time flow, even after watching the film. The setting is ancient China and samurai freelancers are asked to seek vengeance for spurned lovers. A second time basking in the glow of this must-see feature is called for to truly understand its existential wuxia wisdom.