Brigitte Lin is fantastic in this.

Ashes of Time has such emotional, aesthetic intensity that its title -- one of the greatest in movie history -- is fulfilled.

Vivid and energetic. A truly great movie.

This is DP Christopher Doyle's best work. Easily. And the last act, featuring some of Leslie Cheung and Maggie Cheung's best acting, is absolutely worth it. So it is really too bad Kar-Wai has to conveniently forget 4 supporting characters and subplots to get to a story of any consequence.

Not my cup of tea.....at all!

"Wong heightens action tropes the way Sergio Leone found arias in western showdowns, though in his version of the Hong Kong martial-arts netherworld the mandatory melees play second fiddle to the characters' melancholic languor." - Fernando F. Croce

Like watching paint dry, but like pretty colors

Wong Kar-Wai takes a stab at the wuxia genre, with typically Wong-ish results. Stunningly gorgeous photography (and actors), lots of slo-mo and atmospheric ambience, and plenty of introspective voiceover. The brief fight scenes are the weakest part: messy and confusing. The plot is a bit confusing as well but I never felt too lost. Like a lot of Wong, it has a weightiness it doesn't merit, but is effective at establishing mood and tantalizing the senses. Vaguely unsatisfying, yet entrancing.

Between the somewhat indecipherable plot, the lack of emotional hook, and the oppressively serious mood, I didn't find much to keep my interest here. Wong's effervescent style is in full effect, but to the end of a narrative and characters that left me cold. DIsappointing.

Nope, didn't work for me.

A bit of a mixed bag, but overall an enjoyable experience. The plot is somewhat messy, the script wavers between insightful elegance to silly cliche, and the performances range from very average to outstanding. It's much the same with the photography and cinematography; with some wonderful scenic shots, often followed by some really quite drab uninspired camerawork. Overall though the postives outweight any negatives, and the charm of Wongs direction and the characters wins through.

'People say, when you can't have what you want, the best you can do is not to forget.'

The languid, dreamlike atmosphere of the film compensates heavily for a plot which is fragmented, episodic and downright confusing. It has elements of a standard wuxia, but is elevated into something more by the meditations on love, loss, regret and long-forgotten ambition. The cinematography is stunning; the shifting sands and roiling clouds of the Chinese wilderness perfectly reflect the emotions being evoked by the main characters.

Not worse, but hardly an improvement, leaving me wondering why the project even exists.

First of all I have yet to see original cut. I found the story very complicated and hardly possible to understand without rewatching the film. Good thing is Ch. Doyle delivers beautiful cinematography enchanted with beautiful color palette dominated by strong yellow tones. This, and melancholic mood of the film is captivating enough to keep interest in this film till the end.

"...a brooding, melancholic twist on the wuxia..."

Gorgeous. Insanely confusing. Unimportant to the take at large of Wong Kar Wai as a filmmaker.

It's a very complex and intricate film structured in a way that is at first intimidating, but at the end rewarding. You have Wong Kar Wei's sensual cinematography ushering a wonderful sensory experience that is quite frankly very rare in what is at its core a martial arts movie. And as usual there's Wong Kar Wei's obsession with bizarre love triangles.

Wong Kar Wai meets Kung-fu films. So, the protagonists are master swordsmen slaying whole bands of villains single-handedly, but everything is about being trapped in a net of broken relationships and complicated love. This film abandons detailed fight choreography and fast-paced action for a leisurely sequence of simple and beautifully composed frames.

horse love

I don't know if the fight scenes really work for me here. Not sure. But what I do know is that the movie is absolutely beautiful and it is an interesting take on wuxia. I, like others, found it extremely confusing and I don't know if that's due to the writing or just me being stupid. I also enjoy the score and at the end there was a scene that really involved me but most of the time I was unable to truly get into it.

The first thirty minutes are stunning - Tier 10 worthy.

Nice score, and wonderful cinematography. Seems to revolve around love and the past's influence on the present, but the multiple storylines mashed together didn't really involve me, and it's not going anywhere, not communicating anything of worth.