It's been an unusual year for Wong Kar-Wai fans. First, there was My Blueberry Nights, a film that caused quite a stir at Cannes, most of which was not positive. The highly edited version of Nights that ended up stateside feels like the least essential film in the WKW filmography to this massive fan of the visually stunning director. (If you haven't seen In the Mood For Love and 2046, get thee to a DVD store or Netflix queue immediately.) But Blueberry was just the warm-up. Criterion announced that they're beginning their foray into the world of Blu-Ray this month with the excellent Chungking Express, and WKW is releasing in theaters a completely redone version of his 1994 wuxia film, Ashes of Time, a movie that took up so much of the director's life that he actually shot Chungking during an editing break. He was never completely satisfied with the final version, a film that has barely been seen stateside. With nearly every element of the film re-edited, Ashes of Time is being re-introduced to an audience who may be completely unfamiliar with this unusual, award-winning action film. What's perhaps most interesting about Ashes of Time Redux is that my feelings about the film are almost entirely unchanged. There are performances and visual flourishes that make it worth seeing, but the slightly cluttered narrative and too philosophical tone keeps it from being one of WKW's best.

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