Ashes of Time Reloaded?

thelostdragon · Post by **thelostdragon** » 03 Nov 2006, 14:54

Thanks to Yan Wang from the KFCC Boards:

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Fortissimo Films has picked up international sales to Wong Kar Wai's reworked and definitive version of "Ashes of Time," the arthouse helmer's venture into the martial arts genre.

Original pic, released 12 years ago, featured a starry cast of Hong Kong talent who've (mostly) survived the slump since the territory's "golden age." Cast includes Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Tony Leing kar-fai, Jacky Cheung, Charlie Yeung, Maggie Cheung, Brigitte Lin -- and the late Leslie Cheung. But it was scarcely released outside Asia.

"Ashes of Time -- Redux" is an end-to-end re-envisioning of the movie about a fallen swordsman driven by greed. Wong is adding new scenes, re-editing others and rescoring the piece. Delivery is skedded in time for the fall festivals in 2007 -- after Wong has completed his first English-language movie, "My Blueberry Nights."

Source: Variety
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Re-scoring? WTF? What's wrong with the wonderful Frankie Chan-soundtrack?

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 03 Nov 2006, 16:55

The music and the editing are absolutely perfect.
I'm keeping my Mei Ah until the end of time.

Shingster · Post by **Shingster** » 03 Nov 2006, 17:22

If it leads to a subbed, remastered DVD release of the great original then I'm all fuckin for it

.

Knetan · Post by **Knetan** » 03 Nov 2006, 17:36

hey,

hope they stay away from the WKW approved international edit of the film.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 03 Nov 2006, 18:58

WOW WOW WOW. A cinema run and finally a decent DVD. WKW obviously he thought he could improve it and therefore I'm all for it.

Thanks LD. When is My Blueberry Nights due? I think it's got Nicole Kidman in it.

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 03 Nov 2006, 21:43

Damn... I just want the original Ashes of Time I know and love...
I dont want a new cut or whatever if it means we'll not see the old cut ever again.

Besides, it just smells like WKW wants to easily cash-in on the success of recent wuxia-fare, by just retouching and re-styling his old flick a bit...

Anyway, in short, I dont like the sound of this. Ashes of Time is absolutely perfect in the way I've seen it before. They shouldnt try to re-do it or improve on it or whatever. I'm kinda dissapointed that WKW is even considering this. WTF does he think he is? George Lucas?

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 03 Nov 2006, 21:58

Yeah, Yi. I'm as shocked as you are.

I especially don't want a new score.

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 03 Nov 2006, 22:04

tom2681 wrote:Yeah, Yi. I'm as shocked as you are.
I especially don't want a new score.

Me enither, I LOVE the old score. I love the whole movie. Why the fuck cant they just FINALLY release the movie on DVD properly, without all this shit about altering/changing it!?
I dont know who's making those kinds of decisions, but honestly, those people should be shot in the face ...
What a bastards.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 04 Nov 2006, 00:33

Yi-Long wrote:I dont know who's making those kinds of decisions, but honestly, those people should be shot in the face ...
What a bastards.

you want to shoot WKW in the face? Good idea he'll definitely stop making films then. In fact you're clearly not really a fan or you wouldn't want to shoot in the face.

What is it with people on Bullets wanting to shoot people in the face lately? Jeez I'd hate to see what you'd do to people you actually dislike. Cut them up and eat them maybe?

Jeez you've not even seen the film nor have we had any feedback whether it's better (it's director approved, I'd have though a DC was a good thing) or not.

Talk about killing a film before it's even out.

Yi-Long wrote:I dont want a new cut or whatever if it means we'll not see the old cut ever again.

Huh? It's been available for years.

Yi-Long wrote:Besides, it just smells like WKW wants to easily cash-in on the success of recent wuxia-fare, by just retouching and re-styling his old flick a bit...

Bollocks. WKW hasn't sold out yet.

Yi-Long wrote:Anyway, in short, I dont like the sound of this. Ashes of Time is absolutely perfect in the way I've seen it before.

How can you say it's perfect without seeing what else is possible???

Yi-Long wrote:I'm kinda dissapointed that WKW is even considering this.

Why? It wouldn't be the first time a director decides he could make a film better. If everyone thought like you Yi we'd have no LOTR extended cuts, no Blade Runner: DC etc . . .

Yi-Long wrote:WTF does he think he is? George Lucas?

How is that remotely fair?

You're comparing someone whose spent his entire career based on one story, changed his films more times than you can imagine to someone who has consistently brought out exciting, new and fresh work.

Talk about being harsh.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 04 Nov 2006, 00:46

Hold up how do we know a new score is coming? Surely it could mean remaster of the score.

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 04 Nov 2006, 01:05

I swear, Brad... sometimes it seems like you just want to argue for the sake of arguing...

You say it's been available for years now. really? Which DVD would be worth buying?

It's pretty normal that when you absolutely love a movie to bits, you dont want anyone to mess with it. Even if it's the director himself.
Talk about adding newly shot scenes and maybe a new soundtrack etc, is just very very worrying. It just is.

And LOTR was originally intended AND shot in the way they were later releases as the extended DVDs, and Blade Runner was ruined by the studios I believe on it's original release... so the comparisons dont really hold up

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 04 Nov 2006, 01:16

Yi-Long wrote:I swear, Brad... sometimes it seems like you just want to argue for the sake of arguing...

Back at you. Your "constant" bitching about someone cutting this or that gets on my nerves just as much.

Yi-Long wrote:You say it's been available for years now. really? Which DVD would be worth buying?

Well that's not what you said now is it.

Yi-Long wrote:It's pretty normal that when you absolutely love a movie to bits, you dont want anyone to mess with it. Even if it's the director himself.

Agreed but I'd want to see or at least hear about the new cut first.

Yi-Long wrote:Talk about adding newly shot scenes and maybe a new soundtrack etc, is just very very worrying. It just is.

Not to me. I'm all for a director (very different from a studio) seeing if he can improve upon it.

Yi-Long wrote:And LOTR was originally intended AND shot in the way they were later releases as the extended DVDs, and Blade Runner was ruined by the studios I believe on it's original release... so the comparisons dont really hold up

True but your point was any change is bad, even wanting to shoot WKW in the face.

p.s - Any reason you quoted my entire post?

thelostdragon · Post by **thelostdragon** » 04 Nov 2006, 01:31

bradavon wrote:
Yi-Long wrote:You say it's been available for years now. really? Which DVD would be worth buying?
Well that's not what you said now is it.

Brad, do you even know the film or the version that is available? Because if you did, you would've understood that Yi was talking from this perspective:

True but your point was any change is bad, even wanting to shoot WKW in the face.

I think he was making a romero statement on purpose and doesn't mean it the way he wrote it (unlike romero). Sheesh!

p.s - Any reason you quoted my entire post?

It's just a different method. You quote his whole post in parts and he does it in one go.

Shingster · Post by **Shingster** » 04 Nov 2006, 01:31

Didn't WKW have major problems editting this film together, which is why he took the break to make Chungking Express? If so it might be interesting to see a new edit of the film from him, so long as they release the original edit alongside it

.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 04 Nov 2006, 01:38

Exactly, well said Shingster.

thelostdragon wrote:Brad, do you even know the film or the version that is available?

Yes thank you I watched it only a few months back.

thelostdragon wrote:Because if you did, you would've understood that Yi was talking from this perspective:

Where's the rest of your sentence? What perspective?

thelostdragon · Post by **thelostdragon** » 04 Nov 2006, 01:44

Typing error. Was supposed to be a fullstop. Meaning, you would have understood
1. where he was coming from.
2. what he meant.

Anyway, it's getting too stupid really, with every statement you make being quoted and ANALysed.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 16 Apr 2008, 12:35

Look at what I found by chance when searching for My Blueberry Nights posts. There was even the usual Brad and Yi argument. Can't really blame someone for forgetting about news from 2 years ago though.

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 29 Sep 2008, 14:49

I've seen Redux now. I went in with low expectations but I was surprised. It's a lot worse than I thought. The new music is very poor compared to the original score. Visually, believe it or not, the film looks far inferior to the French dvd. It's really ugly and yellow/green, although I don't know how it was originally meant to look like. Dirt and scratches are gone. That's good. Image is no longer grainy. It's soft. That's not good.

It's unbelievable how much these, and other, changes worsen the film. It has lost the bite. It's not only an inferior presentation but the whole film has changed from terrific to mediocre (well, maybe a little better). And this comparison is done to the French dvd (international cut). I'm not very happy with it but I'll be keeping it. Redux I'll never watch again.

edit: typo

gasteropod · Post by **gasteropod** » 24 Oct 2008, 12:46

Here's a positive review of Redux: http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/35157/as ... ime-redux/

Shingster · Post by **Shingster** » 24 Oct 2008, 15:11

Problem with that review is that he pisses all over the things that most fans of Ashes of Time love, so it's no surprise he's so positive about the recut.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 24 Oct 2008, 17:57

I've still to see it

, despite being released weeks back my local arthouse cinema still hasn't shown it.

Where's the bloody DVD or BD!

I'll just be happy to be able to watch it with subtitles that don't strain your eyes and cause them to bleed.

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 24 Oct 2008, 19:39

bradavon wrote:I've still to see it , despite being released weeks back my local arthouse cinema still hasn't shown it.

Where's the bloody DVD or BD!

I'll just be happy to be able to watch it with subtitles that don't strain your eyes and cause them to bleed.

...and you'll need those subs, cause from what I hear about the new soundtrack, it will make your ears bleed.

Knetan · Post by **Knetan** » 25 Oct 2008, 07:45

hey,

bless you, Yi. That made my day.

It's funny, Ashes Of Time have gained quite a following over the years thanks to those eye bleeding subs.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 25 Oct 2008, 09:56

Knetan wrote:It's funny, Ashes Of Time have gained quite a following over the years thanks to those eye bleeding subs.

Cult fans will put up with anything. I doubt anyone did out of choice.

Yi-Long wrote:...and you'll need those subs, cause from what I hear about the new soundtrack, it will make your ears bleed.

I reckon I won't have a problem with it. The DVD is so low quality, it's not as if you can listen to the original soundtrack properly anyway.

Knetan · Post by **Knetan** » 25 Oct 2008, 11:24

hey,

Cult fans will put up with anything. I doubt anyone did out of choice.

Classic.