Costume photographer

Among Wong Kar-wai's works, I especially like Ashes of Time. Not because his other works are not good. In fact, every work of Wong Kar-wai is a rare masterpiece, but I love Ashes of Time alone.

Because it is significantly different from Wong Kar-wai's other works.

The wind in Wong Kar-wai is free, decadent and even illusory, like a prediction of urban life now; The Ashes of Time, like a complex handicraft with exquisite craftsmanship, can be passed down from generation to generation. The scene of being far away from the city and going deep into the desert still reveals a unique sense of indifference, loneliness and alienation. The emotional description is meticulous, which is more complicated and delicate than previous works. In addition to providing a space for thinking, it is also through the relationship between the characters and philosophical dialogue in the play.

Time has passed, in fact, is a world explained by people's hearts, more like the legend of the condor hero in Wong Kar-wai's eyes.

The names in Jin Yong's novels only give him unlimited imagination and creative space. Wong Kar-wai rehearsed a human drama in his eyes within this framework.

Although he is a martial arts figure, he still can't get rid of love and hate and can't stand the drama of nothingness in life. Almost all the characters in this play are like this.

"It didn't move, the wind didn't move. It is the human heart that is moving. "

The disillusioned world, a Buddhist saying, some people see wisdom, some people see sadness.

As a Hong Kong film fan, I also like Jin Yong. The first time I saw Ashes of Time, when the duration of the film was 65,438+00 minutes, I thought: If I hadn't seen Jin Yong's original work, the film might not be easy to understand. When the film went on for 40 minutes, I thought: even if I have seen Jin Yong's original work, I can't understand this film.

Ashes of Time has always been my favorite movie. I have watched it many times and probably went through three processes. The first is puzzled, the second is moved, and the third is suddenly enlightened, which can be said to be a return to the attitude of looking at the mountains. So until today, we can still analyze this film with a rational and calm attitude.

1994 should be the peak year of Wong Kar-wai, which is famous for Chongqing Forest and Ashes of Time.

Wong Kar-wai, wearing sunglasses, often makes it difficult to guess what is hidden behind.

Just like in Ashes of Time, when Maggie Cheung said, "I didn't know I lost until I saw the mirror one day", when Leslie Cheung said, "There are some things you don't want to talk about, and some people you don't want to see again". I suddenly feel that Wong Kar-wai is a very interesting person. A person who can understand the feelings expressed in the film will not have a deep understanding of the disillusionment of life, and his sensitivity and thoroughness to the world will not be without cost.

Muttering characters, images filled with decadent and sad atmosphere, unchanging narration, and uncontrollable trance and neurotic personal style. ...

There are too many things to enjoy in this movie. Every line, every casual action, every trance-like look is enough to confuse people for a long time. Wong Kar-wai only borrowed several names from Jin Yong's works, but created a completely different world of martial arts.

Wong Kar-wai's films have always loved canned music. Only Ashes of Time is an anomaly, almost a "city of beauty".

The soundtrack in Ashes of Time is the soul of this film. Without Chen Xunqi's score, there would be no romantic feeling that seems unreal, lingering, intertwined with love and hate, and unpredictable life and death. Even if you don't watch movies and just listen to the soundtrack, you will have lingering sadness and resentment.

Pipa, xylophone, bell, harp and even guitar appear in turn, showing the rich inner feelings and extreme feelings of the characters.

"Spring is bursting" has appeared many times in the film, which has different meanings in line with the development of the plot.

How frivolous, how decadent, how desolate ... Listening to Wu's songs always reminds people of Miss Hua's short and sad life. In particular, the four musical bars that came to an abrupt end became the most "incoherent, unfinished" ellipsis in the film.

No wonder he won Othello Photography Special Contribution Award at Venice Film Festival.

Through Du Kefeng's lens, it seems that we can go deeper into the emotional world of the characters in Wong Kar-wai's films.

Wong Kar-wai's film aesthetics, without Du Kefeng, will be eclipsed a lot; However, Zhang Shuping's art design and Chen Xunqi's music almost made us forget that this is a martial arts film.

After watching Ashes of Time, I realized that I don't need to envy such a beautiful western movie as fistful of dollars. It turns out that the west of China is so charming.

At the beginning of the film, black characters are shown on the snow-white screen, and the dense drums fall and beat on the low wind music. There is a faint rain in the drums, which slowly permeates the cello's low-waisted performance. After Wong Kar-wai's name was typed, the white curtain was cut into waves at the bottom of the sunset, and the main melody sounded at this time.

Drums are no longer dense, but beat between heroes and sad themes in an orderly way, beating again and again. Arranged in an orderly way, the timpani set off the ups and downs of the main theme, accompanied by wind music and bass, and was interrupted by the intermittent sound of cymbals and gongs from time to time, which was impressive.

The tide in the sunset is the tide of human love and the core theme of the film.

The sparkling afterglow adds a sense of sadness and the smell of the passing of youth. At low tide, "Ashes of Time" drew its sword forward, the mountain soil split, flew to the grass, landed with a sword, turned and confronted the reeds, and the rabbits began to fall, which was dizzying. The slow pace of the opening of the film was outrageous and shocking.

The camera is moving and people are moving. When the tide reappears, it slows down again, cuts into the desert Huang Chen Canyon, and then recounts the opposite ashes of time from an oblique angle. Waves and barren valleys bring people an endless sense of loneliness. The last shot is the tide of love, with three lines of subtitles printed:

English movie titles are actually more poetic, much higher than Ashes of Time. Ashes of time-ashes of time. What else can you find in the ashes of time? Memory, regret, sadness, melancholy, or unspeakable loneliness?

Teenagers can't understand the meaning of these two sentences when they read a dream of red mansions: no me is not you, and you can't understand Iraq from him.

Later, when I watched Wong Kar-wai and Time Has Changed, I read this old saying in my mind. How many scenes in the depths of the world of mortals are like the shadows of a previous life.

This is not just a simple martial arts film. There are no ups and downs of contradictions and conflicts, and several people's stories are narrated separately, forming a transposition film of Du's protagonist and supporting role, focusing on rendering a decadent doomsday mood. The film adds the technique of stream of consciousness, and the most striking scene is that Murong Yan sneaks into Du's room and touches him. Du regarded her as a sister-in-law, and she regarded Du as an evil ghost. This subconscious transposition is a wonderful expression of their loneliness and longing.

Everyone's lines in the film are very classic and extremely sad, telling the sentimental inner monologue of urbanites. Wong Kar-wai listed various ways that modern people are injured, which shows that modern people are extremely fragile. After the arrival of modern civilization, people have become slaves of material things, their feelings have been forgotten, their communication has been lost, their hearts have fallen, and their feelings have become extremely uncertain and complicated. However, many people are hurt after forgetting the classic friendship of their lives. They are eager for emotion and afraid of being hurt.

In the face of material, the emotional foundation is unstable, and finally an emotional desert appears, which is also the spiritual desert of Hong Kong films.

More cool colors are used in the film, with simple blue and yellow as the keynote. Most of the characters' clothes are gray, which symbolizes the exhaustion of the mind, the burnout of the world, or the shackles of the spirit. Even the red color of Murong Yan and Sister-in-law is the embodiment of Leng Yan and loneliness.

Wong Kar-wai used the method of enlarging film grains to fill the endless desert with desolation, and used beautiful empty lenses when changing scenes.

Sometimes he shoots with a calm reflection on the water, which represents a dead silence. When Murong Yan was practicing sword, the waves aroused were actually the externalization of anger, and then the slowly rippling water surface represented a tired state of mind. Shooting the scene of the last battle of blind soldiers in slow motion presents a tragic scene. Desolate desert, shabby shops and rough clothes show decay and desolation.

It was not until Ouyang Feng directly said, "I found out that I have been here for so long, but I have never seen the sky here."

On the surface, the narrative structure of Time Has Passed is complicated, but in fact it is centered on Ouyang Feng and Du Fu. Du is jealous, afraid of rejection, and trapped in her own world. He no longer has the characteristics of valuing righteousness, benevolence, generosity and neglecting wealth reserved by traditional chivalrous men.

Du, the central figure, has violated these traditional chivalrous spirits. Generally, the theme of martial arts films is to defend the Wulin or seek revenge and treasure, while Time has passed is the psychological process of self-discovery of love tragedy.

In the past, traditional chivalrous men roamed the rivers and lakes for revenge or achievements. In Time Has Changed, the chivalrous people wander the rivers and lakes as "chivalrous people", unable to locate their feelings.

According to Wong Kar-wai's first definition, both Dong Xie and Dong Xie are women.

The original intention of Ashes of Time is to tell the story of two women who love each other. As Du said, "Anyone can be vicious, as long as you have tried what is jealousy."

Of course, Du was a completely different person at this moment. The one who was supposed to play Du became Murong Yan, but the one who was supposed to play evil spirits? No one knows who she has become. In all the scenes she played, there is only one shot left in the last edited film, which the cautious audience can look for.

Originally, it was not Du, but Dong Xie, and Du was not the later Dong Xie, but Tony Leung Chiu Wai who became a blind swordsman.

The reason is that Wong Kar-wai suddenly woke up after shooting for two months: everyone knows that he is cool and handsome, so it is not surprising that he is allowed to play the cool and handsome Huang. It is better to play the gloomy and dreary Ouyang Feng, but he is reluctant to cut the big action scene that cost 700,000 shots.

As a result, the yellow version of long hair became Ouyang Feng's youth, and a gloomy, dull and even a little greasy reappeared. Leslie Cheung was only 36 when she filmed her long flowing hair. By the time all the films were finished, he had already celebrated his 38th birthday.

"Ashes of Time" has always caused a huge difference between playing and praising, with both praise and condemnation. However, regardless of the outcome, it is generally believed that Leslie Cheung played an excellent role in this film.

He played a villain in Ashes of Time. As a killer who buys people's lives, he is full of coldness, even selfishness and cruelty. But such a character was endowed with sensibility and humanity by Leslie Cheung.

A deserter lost in his fascination with the world, hiding in a corner of the desert, desperately trying to survive on the edge of life;

In the world of ancient costume, the fashionable humanity and the evil of resentment are vividly displayed by Leslie Cheung, which is refreshing.

It's a pity that Leslie Cheung won the "Best Actor" award of the first Hong Kong Film Critics Association.

Unrestrained wind, wanton clouds, lonely sand, tattered straw mats, unpredictable weather, smiling eyes in indifference, sincere relief in perfunctory, tangled tears in liberation ... everything is unpredictable, but it gathers in one place.

When these ethereal images condense, it is another ink painting that seems light but heavy:

The flowing brush strokes activate several frustrated souls, and the sword goes off-angle, depicting several scattered eyes. Just like the air around you, you can feel it clearly but you can't touch it. It flows, but it takes away all the senses of the audience and makes it deeply attracted.

Ashes of Time has no coherent plot, omitting many scenes that should be explained, leaving a mystery. His lens composition is peculiar. Ouyang Feng's appearance only shows one third of his face on the left side of the picture, which makes you have to look at his approachable and indifferent eyes. All the people in the film only talk outside the camera, and their eyes don't touch at all. Even if the lens is switched, the angles of the two people are completely different, and there is no room for communication.

The expressions, movements and voices of the characters in Time Has Changed are worth recalling repeatedly.

Murong Yan's monologue, played by Brigitte Lin, is both proud and sad. The blind swordsman's wife drank the horse in the pond and stroked the horse with great ambiguity under the reflection of waves and light. Ouyang Feng was speechless when he learned of the death of his eldest sister-in-law.

Sound is part of the performance. We can compare the differences between Cantonese soundtrack and Mandarin dubbing in Ouyang Feng. Cantonese music is colder and harder, and some words are faint and passionate, not as indifferent as Mandarin dubbing.

Action scenes rarely see actual combat tricks, but more are just waving swords at will. This is photography and editing, creating a flying shock wave in vertical and horizontal pictures.

Lots of empty mirrors. Documentaries generally have beautiful pictures and complicated photography skills.

People are moving, the wind is moving, and the shadow of clouds is floating across the earth. Blue sky, white clouds, yellow sand, desert, desolate world, standing with a wide robe and big sleeves. Lonely and defeated in the sword dance in the middle of the Great Lakes, misty, birds shuttled, Murong Yan and Murong Yan crossed, and the firm but gentle splash slowly fell like a curtain.

A large number of night scenes, indoor scenes, people coming and going, gloomy and gloomy are precisely the dark and inhuman spatial characteristics of this city. Even the scenes in Ashes of Time are exquisitely composed, like a desert with scenic postcards, an isolated space. Xi Du said, "Over that mountain, it's still the same desert."

The meaning of traveling or fleeing lies in moving to a different space, but when everything is the same, it is futile to try to climb mountains and mountains again. The closed space of these metaphors or metaphors.

Wong Kar-wai refers to the inevitable fate in life.

Love in the ashes is a bitter unrequited love.

Carina Lau, who was riding a horse, kept stroking the horse's back, but he couldn't wait to get back to his master. Brigitte Lin's hand revolved endlessly around the lantern like a birdcage. He became a caged bird in the erotic world, and he was still crazy after all.

Ouyang Feng is crazy. He crossed white camel mountain, expecting to see more rivers and lakes and a wider world. After all, he was trapped by the word "love" and found himself in a corner of the desert. What he can't see is that he has become his sister-in-law's lover.

Huang is crazy. He is ruthless and bohemian everywhere, just wanting to know what it feels like to be liked. As a result, he hurt many people. He can't love the peach blossom he really loves. He comes to Ouyang Feng for a drink every year and visits the Peach Blossom Garden on the pretext of Ouyang Feng's news. It's a long story

Disappointed with Huang, she didn't even know who she really was, and finally stuck to the empty mountain and despaired of failure.

Love begets hate, either commit suicide or kill the person you love and make the most painful struggle in the world.

The transformation of dual personality is just an excuse for Mr. Murong to escape. If one day I can't help asking you who is your favorite person, please lie to me, no matter how reluctant you are, please say that your favorite person is me and then betray her.

Murong Yan is crazy about love and hates because of love. At the same time, he has two extreme identities, like a restless patient.

Interestingly, Huang, who he/she loved and hated, disappeared after the injury, and Ouyang Feng became the only person Murong confided in. Although it can't be said that Mr. Murong and Mr. Ouyang have developed a doctor-patient relationship, every time they meet, "buying and selling" is just a gimmick. The real focus is on discussing the knot that Murong Yan can't solve.

Moreover, some of the contents of the previous conversation will continue to this time, and a keyword will appear this time, which will affect the direction of the next conversation. This course of treatment has been carried out several times, and Ouyang Feng and Mr. Murong's brother and sister meet each other alternately, and their inner world is deeply entangled layer by layer.

The ultimate question of "Who is the favorite" surfaced, which seemed to force the Murong brothers and sisters as the only whole to appear in person.

Cages are tools for holding birds.

In movies, birdcages always appear with Murong Yan. She is like a prisoner, and Murong Yan is the cage that imprisons her.

Murong Yan wants to leave the cage and fly to Huang's arms. The only way is to destroy the cage. But from another point of view, the cage can stop foreign malice, and it exists to protect the pet birds in the cage from harm. As Murong Yan said, "She is my only relative, and I just want to protect her."

The ideas of Mr. Murong's brother and sister have nothing in common, and the objects of love and hate are just exchanged, but they are trapped in the same body, and there is no exit in this "resentment meeting".

The ending of Murong's story is like Murong Yan's departure, which is unexpected. Perhaps because of Ouyang Feng's role-playing, she fulfilled her long-cherished wish and ended her long-cherished wish for Huang, and she was able to float away overnight.

Dugu likes to practice sword with her own reflection, that is, she is still fighting another self; The purpose of seeking defeat is not to be defeated by others, but "I have dealt with me for a long time", and finally there is only one "I".

However, the day when Mr. Murong and his brother decided to win or lose, I'm afraid it was also the time when they lost their lives. Therefore, she can only fight with herself for the rest of her life, begging to be defeated by her own sword until death separates her and "unites her".

Sister-in-law, played by Maggie Cheung, sat by the window, dressed in red and holding a cattail leaf fan.

Before she died, she said to Huang, "I always thought I won." I didn't know I lost until I looked in the mirror one day. At my best, my favorite people are not with me. "

It would be great if we could start over.

She couldn't let go after all.

With some complaints, she questioned Huang: "In fact, you are so good with him, why didn't you tell him I was here?" Huang replied, "I promised you, so I didn't say anything."

Wry smile and sigh: "You are too honest."

In just five words, I made many hopeless expectations and never waited in despair. How many stories of past lives, endless lingering in this life.

Another example is Huang, whose ambiguous emotions always make his eyes seem to say that he is still resting, and that kind of unreasonable love has hurt others.

So he chose to paralyze himself with a drunken dream, which was free and easy on the surface and depressed inside. The cold expression can't hide the deep feeling in his bones. When he comes to the desert, he will fall in love with it. When he walks out of the desert, he will fall in love with the peach blossom forest. He hurt Murong Yan/Yan, betrayed the blind swordsman, failed Peach Blossom, failed Sister-in-law and Ouyang Feng.

He has never been tempted by his sister-in-law. He just thought it best not to get it. He's just jealous of Ouyang Feng.

What about peach blossoms?

A swordsman and a prodigal son are destined to be indelible marks in her life. The swordsman left him, from one place to another; The prodigal son will eventually wander the world, and his favorite is not peach blossom.

She just takes Liangju as her companion and memories as her neighbor, waiting in nostalgia until she cries.

She didn't wait for the news of her sweetheart, but Ouyang Feng sent the news of the death of the blind swordsman.

Many years later, she looked at a peach blossom blooming outside the window, and suddenly a grain of sand floated into her eyes with the wind, and tears welled up in her eyes.

In Ouyang Feng's eyes, beyond the desert is another desert.

But in Hong Qi's eyes, beyond the desert, there may be another world of flowers and flowers.

Hong Qi lives happily, drinking in a big bowl and eating meat in large chunks, always impulsive. In his values, it doesn't matter which is more important, human life or eggs. What matters is what he thinks is right or wrong.

Hong Qi's blood is boiling. He is impulsive and reckless, but he is still stupid.

Finally, Ouyang Feng returned to white camel mountain and became the overlord. He recalled:

Finally, it ended with Chen Xunqi's entanglement.

"It's a pity that under the swing in the morning, the spring scenery has turned to flowers, and the ribbon loves to throw people red cherries and green plantains."

No matter how talented and beautiful you are, you will go back and forth, just for the first acquaintance and a smile.

I also want to use this movie in memory of Brother Leslie Cheung.