Out of the ashes, a film is remade

It was not his investments or pension plan that was jeopardized by the late-1990s Asian financial crisis, but for Chinese director Wong Kar Wai, it was far more important. It was his movie, Ashes of Time that could have been lost forever.

Ten years ago, Wong began a project to restore his martial arts movie, Ashes of Time. The result, finally, is Ashes of Time Redux (pictured below), which began playing for the first time in US theaters last week and will soon be shown around the world.

Wong views Redux as more than just a vehicle for minor retouches. He rates it as almost as good as new because he set out to restore the integrity of his film, which was copied (often pirated) into DVDs and altered for different markets.