Inspirations
Ashes Of Time is considered as an unofficial sequel to Wong Kar Wai second
feature Days Of Being Wild.
Wong Kar Wai original idea
was to deal with the daily life of a man in the desert. For the story he was inspired
mostly by literature and traditional Chinese novels. Ashes Of Time (AOT) is not only a
free adaptation of the novel The Eagle Shooting Hero but it is also an adaptation
of the fantasy world created by writer Louis Cha. Little by little, Wong Kar Wai freed
himself from the novel and eventually he only kept the main characters such as Ouyang Fen
and Huang Yaoshi, he got rid of some characters, he invented new ones and he mixed them
with some from other novels. Wong Kar Wai's second inspiration was Taiwanese writer Gu
Long. Gu Long is as famous as Louis Cha but he is more modern. Gu Long has inspired and
still inspires a lot of HK directors.
As for the formal aspect of AOT, South American writers were the main source of
inspiration for Wong Kar Wai, i.e. Gabir Garcia Marquez or Manuel Puig. Wong Kar Wai
understood that it was possible to create an original story with a fragmented narrative
structure with no apparent chronological order.
As for the fight design, Wong Kar Wai was influenced by Japanese cinema, Chang Cheh movies
and Kung Fu and Fantasy Cantonese movies from the sixties. Wong Kar Wai wanted to find a
new style of action and a kind of editing far from all the Wu Xia Pian made at this time,
most of them copying Tsui Hark wonderful flying fights. Sammo Hung was hired as action
director made fight scenes with outrageous action. Some moves were surprisingly shot off
frame, with a hectic camera work and an incredible editing job. All this has contributed
to the worldwide fame of AOT, which was then perceived as a re-definition a la Sergio
Leone of the traditional Wu Xia Pian genre.
Conception
A perfect location had to be found regarding
the type of the film and its budget. Wong Kar Wai's solution was the Chinese desert, which
could offer sumptuous wild locations. Wong Kar Wai's team was looking for the landscapes
depicted in the Chinese novels that inspired him for a while. It wasn't really successful
until one day. Wong Kar Wai was shown pictures off the place where Leslie Cheung had
recently moved in. He sent art director William Chang for scouting location. The main
location was eventually found this way.
To re-create the world of AOT, which is not a genuine historical movie, Wong Kar Wai
didn't do any research. He is indeed pretty familiar with this world. He is a great fan of
Cantonese cinema since childhood, and he knows by heart Chang Cheh and King Hu's movie
worlds. Plus, he spent a great deal of time reading martial art novels, and he was used as
well to listen to Kung Fu series broadcast on local radio. This is may be why Wong Kar Wai
is so keen on voice over monologues, which are present in most of his movies. Moreover,
old Kung Fu flicks are still broadcast late at night on TV in HK and are a constant source
of references. In the process of creation of the AOT atmosphere Wong Kar Wai had only one
restriction: authenticity. He didn't want to include any element appearing after the
period of the Soong Dynasty (12th century). As for dialogues, he didn't use any
slang, modern vocabulary or old Chinese either.
Actors
Wong Kar Wai likes to know the actors and
actresses he works with. They help him to direct and to create the story. He cast Brigitte
Lin as the schizophrenic Murong Yin /Yan. Early nineties she rose to fame playing
androgynous warriors in numerous movies (e.g. Swordsman) and she has mastered her
sexual ambiguity image. Wong Kar Wai found interesting to use her image to the extremes.
The blind swordsman couldn't be anyone other than Tony Leung Chiu Wai since as for Wong
Kar Wai he is short and he has the right look to play an ancient and very masculine
warrior. Very famous actors were cast as well, i.e. Tony Leung Kar Fai, Jacky Cheung,
Carina Lau, Maggie Cheung and Charlie Young.
Over-lengthy shooting
Although Wong Kar Wai had a comfortable
budget of HK$ 40 millions to make AOT and plenty of time, things didn't go that smoothly.
He had to manage on his own the crew plus a cast full of stars in a hostile environment
far from the air-conditioned studios of HK. He had to work as well following the hectic
schedules of all the stars (they were busy with other commercials, concerts, TV series,
movies, radio series…). Wong Kar Wai had to conceal two opposite sides of the movie
business. To attract a large audience in order to recoup the cost of production was of
first importance while delivering a personal movie was of equal importance since he
refused to make a mere commercial feature. Wong Kar Wai added as well his personal themes
and obsessions (loneliness, existentialism questions…). The ideas of rejection and
treason developed in AOT are indeed the main lines of his work.
As usual, Wong Kar Wai shot following his instinct. He
reckons now that he included in this feature all that he knew and thought of the cinema.
He once stated that he tried to tell too much in a very short lapse of time and he
therefore involuntarily made a complex film. So the production got late and eventually
went over budget despite all his precautions. AOT took eventually two years to be
completed.
Waiting for the post-sync-sound team, Wong Kar Wai took a
two-month break. From this moment of relief Wong Kar Wai created one of his greatest
masterpieces: Chungking Express.
