Fragmented images are also being used to frame characters in the moment of emotional overload. Cinematographer Christopher Doyle says,” Cinematographer’s jobs are translating ideas to images, putting stories in the frame, playing with light to create poetry.” He expresses the moods by framing shadows in the pictures. He frames moving shadows of the bird cage on characters’ faces, to help characters acting out the moment of emotional puzzling. He frames characters’ shadows on a rough wall, with slow motion tracking shots, to tell they are run in to the pain. He puts the Reflection of Water on character’s faces to write a poetry of memory. Shadows always move in lengthy tracking shots, even though actor’s (actress’s) faces expressions do not change, the moving shadows creates those moments to make audiences feel the loneness and lost mood inside the character. Cinematographer Christopher Doyle’s framing makes viewers feel we are peeking into the stories by placing objects in front of shots. He also frames characters separately with medium and close shots. His famous extremely close shots make us breathe in with characters’ pains.
Audiences never see characters having face to face conversations in Ashes of Time, they are directly talking to camera or behind each other. The separate reactions tell each of them is isolated in their own pain. It's fazing audience in the mood of lost in emptiness.Cinematographer Christopher Doyle also uses film noir to creative lighting which shapes the characters’ personalities, and writes beautiful poetries for his movie. Christopher Doyle uses low key, under exposed lighting for Murong Yan, and Ouyang Feng. Sometimes he just leaves characters in darkness, and just shows their eyes, noses, or lips. The “magic moment” was being used in the shot for the trees beside the lake, The moody soft light tells that she is in a moment of confusion and softness, without protection. The following shot is Murong Yan1(Yan4), with long sunset shadows covering on her face, She talks in to emptiness. Then Ouyang feng comes behind her, with shadow cover all his face. We can see his lips when he talks, until the time he pretends to be Huangyaoshi, His face is light up to tell a lie.
The Kong fu actions in this film are vey blurry, slow motion out of focus shots, and mixed up with jumping cuts. It has become a style that has influenced the Kong fu movies. When Murong Yan1(Yan4) practices sword fighting on a lake, Christopher Doyle uses a lot of emotional blurry action with slow motion movement. She looks like she is dancing with her own reflection it the poetical way to tell that she is lonely in her schizophrenia, lost in her identity.
Ashes of Time is a movie deserve a title of best postmodern art to me. This is a Movie, through me in a trap when watching the story unfolds in front of us, like life itself, and you find yourself somehow become one or another characters in real life performance. As the quote in the beginning of the movie says:” Buddha: The flags are still, no wind blows, it’s the heart of man that’s in tumult (Ashes of Time).”
