#The Assassin

Historical martial arts tale in “The Assassin”

BY GTVW

Photos Agency

Set in ninth-century China, fuses political struggles and family grudges. The Assassin, his highly anticipated follow-up to 2007’s THE FLIGHT OF THE RED BALLOON. A visually arresting take on traditional wuxia films lensed by frequent collaborator Mark Lee Ping Bing (FLOWERS OF SHANGHAI, IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE, RENOIR) and in Hou’s meticulously composed signature style, and was awarded the Best Director prize.

Nie Yinniang (Shu Qi) is a young woman who, as a child, was abducted from a decorated general and then raised by a nun who trained her in the martial arts. After 13 years of exile, she is now a formidable assassin returning to her home province of Weibo with orders to kill Tian Ji’an (Chang Cheen), Weibo’s governor, to whom she was once betrothed. She must confront her parents, her memories and her long-repressed feelings: will she chose to sacrifice the man she loved or will she break forever with the sacred way of the righteous assassins? Rich with shimmering, breathing texture and punctuated by brief but unforgettable bursts of action, THE ASSASSIN is a martial arts film like none made before it.

A film full of passion with characters that really make you feel action though it plays out in near silence, with costumes and cinematography by Hou’s longtime director of photography Mark Lee Ping Bing with the best outdoors, soundstages and scenes very well structured for each part of the story.