Ashes of Time

Set in ancient China at the edge of a barren desert, the film follows Ouyang Feng, a swordsman who has withdrawn there after the woman he loved left him. Bitter and cynical, he makes a living by arranging hired killers for clients who want revenge, running his small inn as a base for these dealings. In the course of his work he encounters a series of figures whose stories of love and loss unsettle him, among them a swordsman losing his sight, a wandering fighter searching for a sense of who he is, and a pair of siblings bound by an unusually close attachment. These meetings gradually force him to see his own isolation. The film is based on characters from the martial-arts novel cycle by Jin Yong.

Wong Kar-wai directed and wrote the screenplay, producing with Jacky Pang and William Chang Suk-Ping. It was his fourth feature, arriving between Chungking Express and Fallen Angels. Leslie Cheung plays Ouyang Feng, with Brigitte Lin, Tony Leung Ka-fai, Carina Lau and Tony Leung Chiu-wai among the cast.

Released in 1994, the film runs 98 minutes and was a co-production involving Hong Kong, mainland China, Taiwan and Japan. On IMDb it holds a rating of 7.1 from 409 votes, and on TMDB it also holds 7.1 from 409 votes; a critics' score of 6.8 from 87 reviews places it slightly below what audiences give it.