Die verlorene Zeit (1994)

Die verlorene Zeit: Directed by Kar-Wai Wong. With Brigitte Lin, Leslie Cheung, Maggie Cheung, Tony Chiu-Wai Leung. A broken-hearted hit man moves to the desert where he finds skilled swordsmen to carry out his contract killings.

“Without a doubt, Ashes of Time is a beautiful, deeply felt movie. The acting and cinematography are outstanding. The color and camera angles are poetic. But the DVD quality is barely acceptable and the plot, what there is of it, is very confusing. The movie is less a journey from point A to point B than it is a dream-like dance around a central theme: regret for the way we treat those we love.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eFor those who would watch the movie for the martial arts– the main characters are mostly swordsmen and martial artists– the movie is less than satisfying. The fight scenes are highly stylized, employing fast cuts, blurs of motion, and disorienting lighting and camera angles. The fight scenes are more about camera technique than martial arts technique.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAshes of Time is not a movie that can be absorbed in one viewing. For many viewers, though, it will be worth a second or even third.”