Between the lousy DVD quality (dig the big gray bar that covers the bottom half of the screen -- that's where the subtitles go!) and the baffling story line (ancient China, guy living in the desert, magic wine, dual identities, and horse thieves!), the average viewer isn't going to exactly thrill to Ashes of Time's charms. As mood music, the movie's got its share of beautiful, tragic, and poetic moments. As an entertainment experience, the detractors who find the movie to be on the dull side have a point or two.

Aka Dung che sai duk.