Fifteen years ago, at the start of what would evolve into a celebrated and visionary cinematic career, the Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai made a martial arts movie. Ashes of Time was, like the films that came later, an impressionistic and strikingly beautiful piece of work. The director decided to revisit the film when he realised that there were several unauthorised versions in circulation. Ashes of Time Redux is the definitive cut of the film, painstakingly restored.

Wong’s elliptical, enigmatic storytelling is lent a real lyricism by the stunning photography. It’s visually rich, drawn in a colour palette that includes searing acid yellows and scorched ambers and reliant on reflected light and layered images. But while the art-house film buff in me admires the originality of the sound design and the flair with which he constructs the image, my inner martial arts fan rather wishes that Wong would just show the fight sequences without draping them in blurry slow-mo.

Tbc, 93 minutes

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