SECRET MOVIE CLUB presents
Part of our INTERNATIONAL KICKASS ACTION Series, Friday, September 15, 2023
LOCATION: The Secret Movie Club Theater, 1917 Bay Street, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90021
*Please note entrance/parking is actually in the back of the 1917 Bay St building. Our entrance is NOT on Bay Street. You access our entrance from Wilson Street by turning into the street art alleyway/corridor in the back of the building. Look for our signs which are always posted on Wilson and in the corridor to guide the audience.
7:30pm ASHES OF TIME REDUX (1994/2008, dir. Wong Kar-wai, Sony Pictures Classics, Hong Kong, 93mns, 35mm)
Wong Kar Wai is known largely to western audiences for his incredible masterpieces of world cinema that focus on love, longing, and the struggles of the heart across time (Days of Being Wild, In the Mood For Love, 2046, Chungking Express).
But there is another side of WKW that’s been hiding in broad daylight since the beginning of his career: his love of martial arts and Chinese/Hong Kong genres like the Wuxia films which focus on martial arts heroes and legends.
Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung are seen writing a wuxia story in In The Mood For Love and Wong Kar Wai would later make one of his most underrated movies The Grandmaster (2013) about Wing Chun master Ip Man’s life.
WKW’s Ashes of Time Redux (1994, re-edited and re-mastered in 2008 as the Redux because the original print had been lost) is actually a kind of prequel to a very famous wuxia novel The Legend of the Condor Heroes.
It is structured as five short interlocking stories that look at the characters of the novel in their younger days. The movie also feels one of WKW’s most star-studded casts with almost every member of his ensemble (Leslie Cheung, Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, Carina Lau, Brigette Lin!) appearing.
Shot by master cinematographer Christopher Doyle, Ashes of Time takes an almost Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid iconoclastic approach to the material by delving into the formative psychological struggles and moral conundrums of the main characters as well as their conflicts between personal attraction and public or familial duty (a key theme in many eastern works).
Kar Wai surprised many when he took the main bad guy from the novel, Ouyang Feng (Leslie Cheung) and made him a kind of anti-hero protagonist in the movie. The movie follows a young Feng and the many events that lead to his descent into badness. But it plays, as only Wong Kar Wai could conceive it, more as a tragic story of heartbreak, real love, missed opportunities, and roiling emotion.
Inspired by the amazing wuxia movies of the 1960’s and 1970’s of King Hu, Wong Kar Wai here crafts a one of a kind martial arts movies that is both filled with fight and action sequences and the wildly emotional interplay that would come to define WKW’s major works.
Grab this rare opportunity to see this key Wong Kar Wai work. On 35mm!
Best always,
Craig Hammill
Secret Movie Club Founder.Programmer
*Please note that though we strive to always show titles on 35mm film if advertised, we may have to screen digitally if the print we receive is in such bad shape or if we don't receive the print in time because of a shipping delay. We will do our best to alert the audience. When this does occur, we will offer each ticket holder who chooses not to attend a complimentary ticket to a future event in exchange. (Disclaimer: Good for 90 days – Future screening must have available tickets, cannot be a fundraiser, and must be comparably priced)
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
REFUNDS:
We can offer refunds up to 24 hours before showtime. Please request a refund through Eventbrite and we will process ASAP. After that, no refunds. Sorry.
However if something last minute comes up and you can’t make the screening, for whatever reason, just write to us before showtime: community@secretmovieclub.com and we’ll offer you complimentary tickets to a future screening, good for 90 days. (Disclaimer: Future screening must have available tickets, cannot be a fundraiser, and must be comparably priced)
HELPFUL SECRET MOVIE CLUB (1917 Bay Street, 2nd Floor, LA, CA 90021) THEATER PARKING TIPS:
We recommend that you park just outside our theater. Remember our theater is actually in a beautiful street art alleyway in the back of the 1917 Bay Street building. You get to our entrance by taking a right on Wilson, then a right behind the building. We are the first set of black steps on the right after the big gate.
There is also a parking lot at the corner of Mateo and Violet Street, just 2 blocks from our theater, which costs $7 per car.
HOW CAN WE STAY ON TOP OF NEWLY ANNOUNCED 35MM SCREENINGS, EVENTS, ETC?
You can follow us on Instagram/Twitter: @secretmovieclub or Facebook: @secretmovieclub35mm
You can also subscribe to our weekly email newsletter at secretmovieclub.com or by writing to us at community@secretmovieclub.com and using the header “SUBSCRIBE ME TO NEWSLETTER”.
HOW CAN I CONTACT YOU IF I HAVE OTHER QUESTIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS:
You can always email us at community@secretmovieclub.com with any other questions, concerns, thoughts, recommendations.