ash of time be an audacious project but end up be a pretentious movie . this film be a good example of how to tell a simple story in a complex manner . the plot of ash of time be fairly simple and come down to two word represent love triangle . because of those love triangle cross story and jealousy and hate and love be the main dynamic display by the character . the narrative part be see through ou yang feng eye ( leslie cheung ) . ou yang feng live in the desert and where he act a middleman to various swordsman and become the tool of destiny through which vengeance be achieve . unfortunately ash of time fails in tell these simple story of love and hate . wong kar wai lose himself drive by a desire to make each frame of the film a painting and an aesthetic experience . in fact beside the casting of beautiful actor ( men and woman ) everything else be a failure in this movie . dialog be minimalist and not original at all . picture quality be very much unequal and the editing be one of the bad ever see ( at least by me ) in the swordplay genre and finally the filming of the rare sword fight be very confusing and unappealing . even the attempt of building artistic scene be not always achieve represent the so call erotic woman on a horse scene be ridiculous and not erotic and useless . wong kar wai want to deliver 100 minute of pure aesthetic experience and forget that a film be first about how a plot be tell . by forget that he deliver an awkward movie that doesn not even fulfill it artistic objective .