Last night I went to the Montalban theatre to check out Nike Sportswear’s Cinema Tuesdays screening curated by Flux. The Montalban is an old theatre named after (and owned by) none other than Ricardo Montalban of “Fantasy Island” Mr. Rourke (”smiles everyone, smiles”) fame. I was informed that Nike Sportswear had taken over the venue through October 31 to hold a special events series, ‘Nike Sportswear at the Montalban.’ I guess this is an extension of the pop-up shop phenomenon, in which stores temporarily take over certain venues for a limited time and really deck out the place with a specific theme, etc. Temporary is the new permanent. Anyway, this Hollywood venue was really cool, kind of revamped by Nike Sportwear with great decorative touches like buffalo (I think or some other large animal) statues in the tri-screen viewing room and such.

The event itself gets an A+ for drawing a pretty hip crowd to a Belvedere hosted bar and movie theatre complete with little perks like a DJ, comped popcorn, candy and beverages. I’ll be looking out for other Nike Sportswear events at the Montalban as I think they’ll probably be well-curated as well.

The film was by acclaimed Chinese director Wong Kar Wai (”In the Mood for Love,” “My Blueberry Nights,” “2046,” “Chungking Express”). “Ashes of Time Redux” is, I believe, his only martial arts movie and the director’s cut of a 1990’s work. It is set for release in L.A. and New York this Friday.

I love Wong’s work on a cinematic level. “In the Mood for Love” felt like sumptuous wallpaper in my house when I put the DVD in. Like that film, “Ashes” was strong on aesthetics and weak on plot. The story was so intricate that the people in front of me were talking through the entire screening, trying to make heads and tails of what it was all about. There was some simple yet profound, dramatic themes like that of memory and the past preventing happiness and so on. But overall, it reminded me so much of these Cantonese martial arts soap operas that my Chinese grandmother used to watch.

When I would spend my summer vacations in Hong Kong I would sometimes sit in front of the TV watching the mellodramatic shows (which had no subtitles) like the folks sitting in front of me at the Montalban, trying to make sense of it all. There were certain archetypes or themes that always resurfaced (and they resurface in Wong’s film) like the laughing crazy woman, family feuds (brother stealing brother’s wife), the close-ups of beautiful Chinese women over-the-top weeping as tears tickled their overdone makeup. My friend said the music sounded like it should have been in one of those big bank commercials. And in light of the current banking crisis, the film was equally tragic in its tortured characters and sad plot.

It was split up into seasons (winter, spring, summer and fall) yet seemed to go on interminably. At one point I whispered to my friend, “Indian summer?” There were about 25 false endings like (to paraphrase): “and then he went back to his home town where there were no peach blossoms waiting for him.” Cue me picking up my purse. Whoops, it’s not over yet. “He realized that memory was holding him back,” or something to that effect. Me: picking up my purse again. “Then he realized the truth…” or something. You guessed it: me picking up my purse AGAIN!

I’ve got nothing against long epic movies but I strongly feel that there should be a dramatic build-up and one (maybe two tops) pay-offs at the end. Some of the landscape scenes were gorgeous–postcards of a forgotten world (now I’m sounding like the screenwriter). The fighting scenes were brutal and recalled, at least for me, something out of “Gladiator.” All in all, a fun night, and an ok movie. Call me uncool, but in the end I’d prefer to stick to my memories…of my wonderful grandmother and her hokey South China soaps.

Posted by Shana Ting Lipton