I had the same issues with Wang Kar Wai's other movie "2046". Whats this all about? Mortality, love, existence. It's somehow about all of this. In other movies these themes are dealt with in the background of a plausible or implausible story. Here they are dealt with head-on, in what feels like a long hypnotic "dream poem" that is more symbol than story. There is the deep Camus-like narrator voice in the background saying stuff like "She waited frozen under deep unrelenting waves and the smell of eucalyptus" (not a line from the movie, but it could be). Maybe there is a lot that isn't easily translated. So it's confusing both intentionally and unintentionally. At the same time there is some kind of majestic beauty to it. It is mostly quiet and moody but erupts occasionally with little bouts of violence. To be honest I hardly understood any of this movie (full credit to whoever wrote the IMDb synopsis) but I was left with an impression - a feeling, a mood, an emotional state - which may have been the whole point.
Review of Ashes of Time
