ChrisThilk Blog

I went on a movie-watching spree on Hulu recently and wanted to catalog some of the flicks I caught on the site.

Nobody’s Fool: I saw this movie when it first came out and remembered quite liking it so I thought it was cool that it showed up on Hulu and I had a chance to revisit it. Paul Newman, unsurprisingly, gives a great low-key performance as a small town curmudgeon who tries to come to terms with the life he’s lead as he meets his grandchildren, tries to hold down a job and other everyday tasks. There’s no big emotional arc he goes on - he winds up in much the same place at the end of the movie that he started out in - but Newman is always worth watching and he never makes the one long, sustained note he’s asked to hold out boring.

The Stranger: Orsen Welles plays an on-the-run Nazi who has managed to integrate himself into a small town in the U.S. but who is eventually tracked down by Nazi-hunter Edward G. Robinson. Not the best film from either one but definitely worth watching if you can track it down.

Hoffa: I know it’s popular to trash the 1992 Danny DeVito-directed biopic of the union legend, but I like it. It’s another movie I saw around the time of its first release and, upon re-watching, I stand by my assertion that DeVito makes some interesting choices and that Jack Nicholson does a pretty good job in the title role. It’s obviously not going to be a complete story of the man’s life but it hits many of the high points and does so in an entertaining way.

OK, now I’m all caught up.

It’s more or less impossible for me to adequately explain the plot for Ashes of Time, a film from director Wong Kar-Wai, so let me just paste the official synopsis here:

The film is set in five parts, five seasons that are part of the Chinese almanac. The story takes place in the jianghu, the world of the martial arts. Ouyang Feng (Leslie Cheung) has lived in the western desert for some years. He left his home in White Camel Mountain when the woman he loved chose to marry his elder brother rather than him. Instead of seeking glory, he ends up as an agent. When people come to him with a wish to eliminate someone who has wronged them, he puts them in touch with a swordsman who can do the job.

Now let’s be clear that this brief description of the film doesn’t come close to doing justice to the film itself.

Broken into five parts, the loose center of the film is the man, mentioned above, who finds people for clients who need problems solved.

But what it’s really about is the visual palette that Wong Kar-Wai works with throughout the film. In addition to the highly dramatic - also melodramatic - performances from all the lead actors and actresses the colors and tones the director works with are a character in and of themselves. It’s absolutely gorgeous to look at and behold. I mean absolutely fantastic.

Aside from the visuals, though, Wong Kar-Wai gets some fantasticly deep performances from the actors he uses. The subtleties of those performances - despite the over-the-top emotions they’re asked to portray - are simply outstanding and a joy to watch.

This “Redux” version is meant to be the ultimate version of the film, originally released in 1993 but since disseminated - both officially and unofficially - in various versions. This Redux release, then, is meant to set the record straight and be “definitive” in the eyes of the director. Not being familiar with the original or any of the subsequent iterations I can’t rightly speak to what’s different but I can tell you that if the original was half this moving it has to be fantastic.

The DVD release contains just a couple special features, a Q&A with Wong Kar-Wai and a featurette on the making of the film.

Ashes of Time is full of fantastic visuals and emotive performances and well worth checking out if you’ve heard of the movie or not as it’s a richly rewarding experience.