Ashes of Time Redux at the NYFF

Several years ago Wong Kar Wai went to retrieve the negatives of his 1994 epic Ashes of Time, only to discover badly deteriorated reels. What he thought would be a quick restoration of the story about martial arts assassins in medieval China turned into a five-year revamp, which included developing a new score and contacting theaters in Chinatowns around the world for clean prints to swap in (hence the "redux" in the title). But Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero this isn’t.

By far the highlight of the night was crazy Christopher Doyle, frequent Wong collaborator. In addition to such gems as "fuck you very much" and "this guy makes you want to give 50%, not your usual 30%" to projects, Doyle danced, applauded himself, and took several photos of the crowd and fellow panelists. At one point, he even left the stage to hide behind some curtains, periodically stepping out to wave.

Doyle and Wong also told a story that's making the rounds in the press: Doyle got really, really drunk the night before the final shoot, which involved setting the entire set on fire. Too inebriated to shoot it properly from a crane, Doyle eventually stripped off his clothes, grabbed a camera, and jumped in the fire. The shots were unusable (obviously), but Wong thinks this story shows the dedication of Doyle--and everyone else on the crew--to make a difficult, meditative movie under an exhausting shooting schedule in the middle of the Gobi Desert, with just a portable generator. Too bad the result isn’t nearly as entertaining as the cinematographer.

Photo: thanks