Spruced-up reissue of the 1994 Wong Kar-wai film of the same name minus the Redux. The changes consist principally of a new musical score showcasing the plangent, pensive cello of Yo-Yo Ma. They have not, however, amended the confusion and disappointment in an arty, abstract, almost actionless martial-arts period piece (even the infrequent action is abstract, hardly more than slo-mo blurs), a nonlinear narrative of assorted swordsmen at a desert way station, engaging in melancholy rumination on past, present, and possible future, preferably with a loose strand of hair dangling over an eye. The stellar cast (Leslie Cheung, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Tony Leung Ka-fai, Brigitte Lin, Carina Lau, Maggie Cheung, Charlie Young) is glamorously photographed by Christopher Doyle, and some of the visual effects are exciting enough to compensate for any lack of action: the crosshatch shadows thrown by a revolving woven birdcage, for example, or the shimmery reflections from beneath a recumbent horsewoman languorously hugging and stroking her watering steed. (2008) — Duncan Shepherd
This movie is not currently in theaters.