ashes of time

i just watched the movie starring leslie cheung, maggie cheung ??, tony leung my sweetheart and some familiar others, including zeb from days of being wild. at first i thought it was one of those martial arts movies, all action and a little philosophy thrown in, but it wasn't. give it to wong kar wai to throw those barbs at your heart, a few short ones at a time, which you don't really feel at first, but then comes the powerful one with the sweetest poison, and it tugs at your heartstrings, it renders you nostalgic, draws you back into the most poignant and saddest moments of your life and leaves you with that dull ache in your mind and chest for a long, long time. the most memorable one is that from maggie, leslie's sweetheart who married his elder brother instead. she of course regretted it and she regretted that 'she wasn't with the one she loved in the best years of her life'. wow, double wow. what more painful truth than lies within those words? i give it to maggie to finally catch my admiration, after the other movies i saw of her with tony. her face said it all, all the longing of time past, the silent pain in her face.

another movie i won't forget for a long,long time. though the plot is somewhat convoluted, of course, and some subplots seem downright simplistic (philosophically) and stupid. at first.