Dung che sai duk (1994)

Director:

Kar Wai Wong

Writers:

Louis Cha (novel)
Kar Wai Wong (screenplay)

Release Date:

18 November 1995 (South Korea)

Genre:

Drama | Action

Plot:

A broken-hearted hit man moves to the desert where he finds skilled swordsmen to carry out his contract killings.

Plot Keywords:

Swordsman | China | One Man Army | Donkey | Wuxia

Awards:

10 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Brigitte Lin	...	Mu-rong Yin / Mu-rong Yang
Leslie Cheung	...	Ou-yang Feng
Maggie Cheung	...	The Woman
Tony Leung Chiu Wai	...	Blind Swordsman
Jacky Cheung	...	Hung Chi
Tony Leung Ka Fai	...	Huang Yao-shi
Li Bai	...	Hung Chi's Wife
Carina Lau	...	Peach Blossom
Charlie Yeung	...	Young Girl
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Joey Wang	...	(scenes deleted)
Shun Lau	...	Leader of Ouyang's Opponents in Opening Battle (uncredited)

Directed by
Kar Wai Wong

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Louis Cha		novel "The Eagle Shooting Heroes"
Kar Wai Wong		screenplay

Produced by
Ye-cheng Chan	....	executive producer
Johnnie Kong	....	line producer
Jeffrey Lau	....	producer
Tsai Mu Ho	....	executive producer
Sung-lin Tsai	....	producer
Jacky Pang Yee Wah	....	producer
Kar Wai Wong	....	producer

Original Music by
Frankie Chan
Roel A. García

Cinematography by
Christopher Doyle

Film Editing by
Kit-Wai Kai
Patrick Tam		(as Ka-Ming Tam)
William Chang		(uncredited)

Production Design by
William Chang

Costume Design by
William Chang

Sound Department
Michael Baird	....	additional sound effects designer
Nopawat Likitwong	....	sound editor
Robert Mackenzie	....	sound designer
Robert Mackenzie	....	sound re-recording mixer
Terry Tu	....	sound re-recording mixer
Traithep Wongpaiboon	....	sound re-recording mixer

Other crew
Sammo Hung Kam-Bo	....	action sequence designer

Thanks
Gilles Ciment	....	thanks

Production Companies

• Beijing Film Studio
• Jet Tone Production
• Pony Canyon
• Scholar Productions

Distributors

• Block 2 Pictures (1994) (worldwide) (all media)
• ARP Sélection (2008) (France) (theatrical)
• Cathay-Keris Films (2009) (Singapore) (theatrical)
• D Production (2008) (Turkey) (theatrical)
• D Productions (2008) (Turkey) (theatrical)
• Distribution Company (2009) (Argentina) (theatrical)
• Filmcoopi Zürich (2008) (Switzerland) (theatrical)
• Media Rights (2008) (Romania) (theatrical)
• Monolith (2008) (Poland) (theatrical)
• Splendid Film (2008) (Germany) (theatrical)
• FS Film Oy (2009) (Finland) (DVD)
• HKFM (1996) (USA) (subtitled)
• Imagem Filmes (2009) (Brazil) (all media)
• Sony Pictures Classics (2007) (USA) (all media)
• Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (2009) (USA) (DVD)

Special Effects

• BUF (visual effects) (Redux release)
• Oriental Post Co. Ltd. (visual effects) (Redux release)

Other Companies

• Agfa Gevaert  film stock supplied by
• CyberPort Digital Media Centre  digital restoration (Redux Release)
• Fine Art Film Production Company  subtitles
• Kantana Laboratories Co.  sound post-production (Redux Release)
• Mandarin Recording Studio Ltd.  sound re-recording studio
• Oriental Post Co. Ltd.  digital intermediate (Redux Release)
• Oriental Post Co. Ltd.  digital restoration (Redux Release)
• Sony Classical  soundtrack
• Soundfirm  sound post-production (Redux Release)
• Universal Laboratory  film processing

Also Known As:

Ashes of Time (Hong Kong: English title)
Ashes of Time Redux (International: English title) (recut version)
Dong xie xi du (Hong Kong: Mandarin title)
Dong xie xi du zhongji ban (China: Mandarin title) (recut version)
Dung che sai duk redux (Hong Kong: Cantonese title) (recut version)
Cenizas del tiempo (Argentina) [es]
Cenizas del tiempo redux (Argentina) (festival title) [es]
Cinzas do passado Redux (Brazil) [pt]
Die verlorene Zeit (Germany) [de]
Este contraveneno del Oeste (Spain) [es]
Les cendres du temps (France) [fr]
Les cendres du temps - Redux (France) [fr]
Na východe dábel, na západe jed (Czech Republic) [cs]
O periplanomenos xifomahos (Greece) (DVD title) [el]
Stahtes tou hronou (Greece) (festival title) [el]

MPAA:

Rated R for some violence.

Runtime:

100 min | 93 min (Redux version)

Country:

Hong Kong | China | Taiwan

Language:

Cantonese | Mandarin

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital (Redux version) | Mono

Certification:

Singapore:PG | South Korea:15 | UK:15 | USA:R (Redux version) | Canada:13+ (Quebec) (Redux version) | Canada:14A (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba/Ontario) (Redux version) | Canada:AA (Ontario) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Hong Kong:II | Singapore:NC-16 (DVD rating) (Redux version) | Hong Kong:IIB (Redux version) | Finland:K-15 | Australia:M | Argentina:13

Filming Locations:

China

Company:

Beijing Film Studio

Trivia:

This film had an exhausting effect on Kar Wai Wong. While on hiatus during the editing process he wrote and shot Chung Hing sam lam (1994) (Chungking Express) to "clear his head".

Quotes:

Ou-yang Feng: The harder you try to forget something, the more it will stick in your memory. Once I heard someone say that if you have to lose something, the best way to keep it in your memory.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in Tian xia wu shuang (2002)

All Along the Watchtower

Kar-Wai is one of the three best directors working today. Many feel this is his best work. Surely it is the greatest leap since his previous, but I find the Mood-2046 pair more important, even lifealtering.

If you come into this expecting a story that unfolds in good order and makes sense, you will be disappointed. The overlapping of layers, the folding of narrative, the merging of images is what we're in for.

There are two famous stories about this. The first is that at some point he quit work, then quickly went off to make "Chunking Express," during which he "found himself" ...

The other story has to do with "Pulp Fiction." Tarantino is a huge borrower of ideas. Having already written a couple "raw" movies that people admire, he stumbled upon Kar-Wai in the midst of making this — a long affair. All the clever bits in the structure of "Pulp" are from this, just as surely as all the clever bits in "Star Wars" are from Kurosawa.

What are those bits? Multiple persons in one body. Multiple bodies for one person. Circular storytelling where any part is the beginning. Nested narrative where one story tells another. Characters that imagine and forget each other, bringing them into our world and out.

Death, love, yearning, accident, encounter.

All of this at the beginning of a luscious partnership between Kar-Wai and Christopher Doyle. They are today what Greenaway and Sacha Vierny were: dangerous adventures in cinematic imagination coupled with mastery of cinematic expression.

This takes a few too many chances and you can see precisely where Kar-Wai abandoned it to search for sense. (He always shoots in order of what you see.) But if you are ready for the transcendental thrills of his later work, you might want to start here.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.