The Assassin

[PalmStriker]

Wow, not so good ~ forsaking kick ass in a titled "martial arts" nomination for the sake of ART. So not necessary. Salted Wounds.

[Jimbo]

Taiwanese filmmakers for the most part seem to have gone totally into artsy-f@rtsy cinema. Unfortunate, since in the 1970s into the early-to-mid-80s, Taiwan was a big hub of Kung fu filmmaking, probably even outpacing Hong Kong in that regard as far as sheer volume.

Several years ago, one of the Taiwanese art house movies I saw was Goodbye, Dragon Inn, about an old Taipei cinema showing King Hu's Dragon Gate Inn one last time before closing for good. I thought it would be a tribute of sorts to that classic movie, but it was just weird (and depressing and boring). I think that Taiwanese filmmakers are trying their best to stay as far away from KF or MA cinema as possible, even when it's implied, and making pretentious movies seems the way to do it.

[GeneChing]

The Assassin is a great film. One might even go so far to say it is a cinematic masterpiece. It's just not a great martial arts film. Don't go to see it expecting to see great martial arts. Go to see it expecting a gorgeous film. And if you are a true fan of the martial arts genre, it's a must see. It's impact on our genre as a Foreign Film Oscar contender makes it very significant.

Well Go USA has expanded their theatrical distribution.

USA Theater Location
October 16, 2015
NEW YORK CITY
IFC Center
323 6th Ave
New York, NY 10014
(212) 924-7771

Film Society of Lincoln Center
70 Lincoln Center Plaza
New York, NY 10023
(212) 875-5610

LOS ANGELES
Laemmle Playhouse 7
673 E Colorado Blvd
Pasadena, CA 91101

Laemmle Ahrya Fine Arts
8556 Wilshire Blvd.
B.H., CA 90211

October 22, 2015
MIAMI
GEMS - Miami International Film Festival
300 NE 2nd Ave
Miami, FL 33132

October 23, 2015
CHICAGO
AMC River East 21
322 East Illinois Street
Chicago, IL 60611
(312) 596-0333

Music Box Theatre
3733 N Southport Ave
Chicago, IL 60613

NEW YORK CITY
Cinema Arts Centre
423 Park Ave
Huntington, NY 11743

SAN FRANCISCO / BAY AREA
Landmark Shattuck Cinemas
2230 Shattuck Ave
Berkeley, CA 94704
(510) 644-2992

AMC Metreon 16
35 4th St Suite 3000
San Francisco, CA 94103

Camera 3
288 S Second St
San Jose, CA 95113
(408) 294-3334

LOS ANGELES
AMC Atlantic Time Square
450 N Atlantic Blvd
Monterey Park, CA 91754
(626) 407-0240

Edwards University Town Center 6
4245 Campus Drive, University Center
Irvine, CA 92612
(844) 462-7342

CHARLOTTE
Regal Cinemas Ballantyne Village 5
14815 Ballantyne Village Way
Charlotte, NC 28277
(844) 462-7342

KNOXVILLE
Regal Cinemas Downtown West 8
1640 Downtown W Blvd
Knoxville, TN 37919
(844) 462-7342

SCOTTSDALE
Harkins Theatres Camelview 5
7001 E Highland Ave
Scottsdale, AZ 85251
(480) 947-8778

October 28, 2015
ST. LOUIS
RagTag Cinema Cafe
10 Hitt St
Columbia, MO 65201
(573) 441-8504

WINCHESTER
Alamo Drafthouse Cinema
181 Kernstown Commons Blvd
Winchester, VA 22602
(540) 313-4060

October 29, 2015
MIAMI
Miami Beach CInematheque
1130 Washington Ave
Miami Beach, FL 33139
(305) 673-4567

NEW YORK CITY
Time & Space Ltd
434 Columbia St
Hudson, NY 12534
(518) 822-8448

October 30, 2015
MIAMI
Tower Theater - Miami
1508 SW 8th St
Miami, FL 33135
(305) 237-2463

Cinema Paradiso
503 SE 6th St
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301
(954) 525-3456

Lake Worth Playhouse
713 Lake Ave
Lake Worth, FL 33460
(561) 586-6410

SAN FRANCISCO / BAY AREA
Pageant Theatre
351 E 6th St
Chico, CA 95928
(530) 343-0663

Landmark Shattuck Cinemas
2230 Shattuck Ave
Berkeley, CA 94704
(510) 644-2992

SEATTLE
Pickford Film Center
1318 Bay St
Bellingham, WA 98225
(360) 738-0735

SIFF Cinema Egyptian
805 East Pine Street
Seattle, WA 98122
(206) 324-9996

CHICAGO
Tivoli Theatre
5021 Highland Ave
Downers Grove, IL 60515
(630) 968-0219

PHILADELPHIA
The Colonial Theatre
227 Bridge St
Phoenixville, PA 19460
(610) 917-1228

GRAND RAPIDS
Celebration! Cinema Grand Rapids Woodland
3195 28th Street SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49512

WASHINGTON, D.C.
AFI Silver Theatre
AFI Silver
Silver Spring, MD 20910

Landmark Theatres - E Street Cinema
55 11th St NW
Washington, DC 20004

OMAHA
Film Streams
1340 Mike Fahey St
Omaha, NE 68102
(402) 933-0259

AMHERST
Amherst Cinema
28 Amity St
Amherst, MA 01002
(413) 253-2547

SALT LAKE CITY
Tower Theater - Salt Lake City
876 E 900 S
Salt Lake City, UT 84105
(801) 321-0310

November 3, 2015
INDIANAPOLIS
Indiana University Cinema
1213 E 7th St
Bloomington, IN 47406
(812) 855-7632

November 6, 2015
IOWA
FilmScene
118 E College St
Iowa City, IA 52240
(319) 358-2555

NEW MEXICO
The Screen
1600 St Michaels Dr
Santa Fe, NM 87505
(505) 473-6494

BOISE
The Flicks
646 W Fulton St
Boise, ID 83702
(208) 342-4288

ALBUQUERQUE
Guild Cinema
3405 Central Ave NE
Albuquerque, NM 87106
(505) 255-1848

SALEM
CinemaSalem
1 E India Square Mall
Salem, MA 01970
(978) 744-1400

November 11, 2015
DENVER
International Film Series
1801 Colorado Ave
Boulder, CO 80309
(303) 492-1531

November 12, 2015
OKLAHOMA CITY
Oklahoma City Museum of Art
415 Couch Dr
Oklahoma City, OK 73102
(405) 236-3100

November 13, 2015
PHILADELPHIA
Landmark Ritz Theater
214 Walnut St
Philadelphia, PA 19106
(215) 440-1184

Zoetropolis Art House
315 W James St
Lancaster, PA 17603

CHICAGO
Normal Theater
209 W North St
Normal, IL 61761
(309) 454-9720

PORTLAND
Liberty Theatre
315 NE 4th Ave
Camas, WA 98607
(360) 859-9555

GRAND RAPIDS
Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts
2 Fulton St W
Grand Rapids, MI 49503
(616) 454-7000

November 20, 2015
NASHVILLE
Belcourt Theatre
2102 Belcourt Ave
Nashville, TN 37212
(615) 846-3150

November 27, 2015
HOUSTON
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
1001 Bissonnet St
Houston, TX 77005

November 28, 2015
NEW MEXICO
Fountain Theater
2469 Calle De Guadalupe
Old Mesilla, NM 88046
(575) 524-8287

December 4, 2015
PITTSBURGH
Harris Theater
809 Liberty Ave
Pittsburgh, PA 15222
(412) 681-5449

December 10, 2015
COLUMBUS
Wexner Center for the Arts
1871 N High St
Columbus, OH 43210

CANADA Theater Location
October 30, 2015
TORONTO
Bell Lightbox
350 King St W
Toronto, ON M5V 3X5, Canada
+1 416-599-8433

VANCOUVER
Vancity Theatre
1181 Seymour St
Vancouver, BC V6B 2E8, Canada
+1 604-683-3456

November 6, 2015
MONTREAL
Cinema du Parc
3575 Av du Parc
Montréal, QC H2X 2H8, Canada
+1 514-281-1900

November 13, 2015
ALBERTA
Plaza Theatre
1133 Kensington Rd NW
Calgary, AB T2N 3P4, Canada
+1 403-283-2222

OTTAWA
Mayfair Theatre
1074 Bank St
Ottawa, ON K1S 3X3, Canada

[GeneChing]

The critics are raving.

Cannes Best Director Winner On His First Martial Arts Film, The Future Of Movies
by Carman Tse in Arts & Entertainment on Oct 15, 2015 12:35 pm


Shu Qi as Nie Yinniang in Hou Hsiao-hsien's 'The Assassin' (Well Go USA)

It had been eight years since director Hou Hsiao-hsien last released a feature-length film until This Assassin this year, but fans of the Taiwanese master will likely find that the wait was worth it. Serving as a leader for both the Taipei Film Festival and the Golden Horse Film Festival (the Chinese equivalent of the Oscars of which The Assassin, by the way, has eleven nominations), the de facto cultural ambassador of the island nation was simply too busy to find the time to make his follow-up to Flight Of The Red Balloon (2007) until recently.

When it finally seemed that his martial arts epic had finally taken off, questions lingered as to how the project would actually unfold. How would Hou—who gained international recognition for autobiographical meditations on Taiwan's 20th century history like A City Of Sadness (1989) and The Boys From Fengkuei (1983)—tackle the material? Wuxia, the martial arts genre known for its swordplay and being set in the antiquity, is one of the most familiar genres in Chinese film. But for a director whose work is known for its elliptical narratives, long takes, and abstract approach, it was an odd match. Thankfully, the result is one of the year's best films and one of the best in his decades-spanning career—it also netted him the Best Director award at this year's Cannes Film Festival.


'The Assassin' director Hou Hsiao-hsien (Well Go USA)

In The Assassin, Shu Qi plays Nie Yinniang, a highly skilled assassin in the Tang Dynasty who's tasked with killing the governor of a semi-autonomous province (Chang Chen), a man to whom she was once betrothed. Hou often stresses that he frequently forgoes rehearsals or much directing of his actors before filming, preferring to keep them loose to achieve the realism he strives for. But for a wuxia film, fight choreography and preparation is a necessity, and that presented its own challenges with the cast of The Assassin. "The main issue was that two of our main actresses, Shu Qi and Zhou Yun, were not professionally trained martial artists," the director told LAist at a recent roundtable discussion. "We would just shoot everything in bits and pieces."

Otherwise, it was business as usual on the set. "[Shu Qi and Chang Chen] read the script and they figured it out on their own," he said of the chemistry between his two leads. He had previously worked with both in Three Times (2005) when they the two played lovers across three separate time eras. "They never had any questions for me."

Although Hou was able to shoot The Assassin and its gorgeous landscapes and luscious interiors in his preferred format of 35mm, he acknowledged that the technology had drastically changed since he returned to filmmaking. For his next project he's considering experimenting with digital cameras. "The language of visual expression might change," he said of the technology, which would allow the filmmaker more manipulation of the image and expand what he felt was idiosyncratic and expressive filmmaking. "There's a lot of flexibility and freedom. The possibilities are very interesting."

And even though this digitization means the the movie-going experience has become more individual, with home viewing and mobile devices, Hou feels that the technology also provides the means to bring the audiences back into movie theaters. "Filmmakers want to make sure films are communal experiences, that these are events," he said. "I think it's possible that these films become so advanced and so unique that you have to experience them in a theater."

Translations provided by Eugene Suen.

The Assassin opens this Friday in New York (at IFC Center and Film Society Of Lincoln Center) and Los Angeles (at Laemmle Playhouse 7 in Pasadena and Laemmle Ahrya Fine Arts in Beverly Hills). Hou Hsiao-hsien will be in-person for Q&As this Friday and Saturday in Los Angeles. Click here for more information on release dates across the country.

A Most Unusual And Beautiful 'Assassin'
October 15, 2015 5:03 PM ET
Ella Taylor


Shu Qi in a scene from The Assassin.
Courtesy of SpotFilms

The Assassin, a gorgeous new work by Taiwanese filmmaker Hou Hsiao-Hsien, is a martial arts film influenced by Hong Kong wu xia films and short novels based on early Chinese legend. The movie, which won Best Director at this year's Cannes Film Festival, has a few short, sharp fight sequences involving knives with a vicious curve to them. But it won't surprise anyone familiar with Hou's oeuvre that he invites us to slow down, to watch and listen to what goes on, and doesn't, in between. Or that the titular killer is a woman, though the nastiest of her adversaries can expect no mercy on that account.

Played with serene self-possession by Hou regular Shu Qi — whose full lips, hard stare and lithe stride carry echoes of Angelina Jolie — Nie Yinniang was abducted as a child from the unruly Chinese province of Weibo and trained to kill by a nun (Sheu Fang-Yi) who doubles as a warrior princess and quite possibly an agent of the Empire. We see early on that Yinniang excels at her job, but once she's under orders to return to Weibo and take out its governor Tian Ji'an (Chang), it soon becomes apparent that she's not fully committed to its rough justice, not least because the two were once betrothed.

Set in the ninth century, The Assassin is a legend, complete with curses and a bird allegory that unlocks the source of Yinniang's inner tumult. Yet the tale is told in realist language, with fervent attention to period rituals of eating, drinking, and bathing, and is opulently costumed in red and deep rose with touches of mint green. Of the women, only Yinniang appears in business attire, all in black with soft trousers that allow her to whirl around and stalk her hapless prey on rooftops, in forests of silver birch, in ornately upholstered palaces. The other women glide around like dolls, speaking their lines with ceremonial formality. Yinniang gets to move, and that is the source of her power, and her palpable unease.

If you haven't seen any of Hou's films (I recommend starting with his brilliant 1989 political drama A City of Sadness), the progression from one seemingly unedited scene to the next can seem slow, even static. Between the lines of the interior long shots that Hou favors (except, perhaps, in the impish Flight of the Red Balloon, his only film shot in the West, with Juliette Binoche in the lead), a complicated political economy of long-repressed feeling is at work that deepens without fanfare into repressed political conflict. Will Yinniang follow orders and carry out the harsh retributive justice embedded in her job description, or obey the ties of love, blood and family that draw her back home?

There's a way to read her choice as a rebuke to all the woman warriors currently rampaging through Hollywood's movie franchises, as if feminism were a matter of doing what the boys do, only more so. The most tacit and elliptical of filmmakers, Hou would never say so. The nearest thing to exposition in The Assassin comes in a black-and-white prologue that shows who and what shaped Yinniang into a toxic avenger. Like many of his films, The Assassin may be said to pursue an underground obsession with Taiwan's tortured relationship to the mainland that, on and off, has dominated it for centuries. You don't need any of this to fall in love and abandon yourself to the movie's exquisite landscapes, at once serene and melodramatic, revel in Hou's stealthy cutaways to quivering blossoms, or listen to the birdsong and the wind ruffling trees that counterpoint the bloodshed. With and without allegory, to watch The Assassin is to be carried along in the river of life, in all its ecstasy and terror.

[GeneChing]

...there's even more but I'm only cherry-picking a few.

Watching The Assassin Is Like Floating on a Gold-and-Lacquer Cloud
By Stephanie Zacharek
Wednesday, October 14, 2015 | 2 days ago


The Assassin Courtesy of Well Go USA

Hou Hsiao-hsien's The Assassin is the Taiwanese director's first foray into the martial-arts genre. It may also be his most resplendent film yet: Watching it is like floating along on a sumptuous gold-and-lacquer cloud. Hou favorite Shu Qi (who also starred in Millennium Mambo and Three Times) plays Nie Yinniang, a fierce fighter in 9th-century China who was kidnapped at the age of 10 and trained as an assassin by the scheming nun Jiaxin (Sheu Fang-yi). Don't you just love it already? Hou starts off with a gorgeous prologue: He sets it off, like a gray jewel, by shooting it in austere, elegant black-and-white, in the (squarish) Academy ratio.

We see Yinniang expertly dispatch an enemy on horseback — the action is as swift and graceful as the snap of a silk flag in the wind. But when she fails to fulfill one of Jiaxin's orders — she can't bring herself to kill her next mark when she sees him with his young son — Jiaxin sends her away on an even more difficult mission. At this point Hou shifts to a palette of deep, rich, vibrant colors that mirror the subtle intensity of the action: Yinniang is forced to return to her home province, Weibo, which is embroiled in a struggle with the imperial court. She has orders to kill her cousin, Tian (Chang Chen), the governor of Weibo, though their family connection is even more complicated than it first appears.

Film Details
Critics' Pick
The Assassin (Nie yinniang)
Rating:NR Genre:Action/Adventure Running Time:107 min.

I know some people who marched out of The Assassin fully confident they understood every angle of its somewhat labyrinthine plot, and others who lost the trail very early on. I'm somewhere in the middle, but I can assure you that you don't need to be schooled in late–Tang dynasty lore to be dazzled. Hou has always been a gifted visual stylist, favoring languorous takes that beckon you closer rather than hold you at a distance. In The Assassin — shot by master cinematographer Mark Lee Ping Bin— there's color everywhere: Princesses and concubines wear embroidered silk raiments in shades of pink and tangerine; rooms are dotted with bowls of peonies so bright they practically glow like lamps; gauzy patterned curtains let in just enough light, or provide subtle cover for cat-footed assassins.

The action is fleet and distinctive, quiet in a way that keeps you alert. Hou doesn't have to beg for our attention; he favors naturalistic hand-to-hand combat, as opposed to the more fanciful traditional wuxia wirework. So even though this is a fantasy, the fighting feels disarmingly real: The characters bob and weave and dance, and you can hear and feel their feet hitting the ground. The Assassin explores the fringy divide between love and duty, and Shu carries its emotional weight deftly. Dressed all in black, she moves like a half-glimpsed shadow.

Hou uses very few close-ups here, preferring to tell his story mostly through movement: combat, dance, the act of passing through a landscape of satiny green firs or silvery birch trees and just watching. Shu conveys complicated feelings — longing, regret, anxiety — with little more than the tilt of her chin or the set of her shoulders. The Assassin is the slowest martial-arts movie in the East, and that's a wonderful thing.

THE ASSASSIN | Directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien | Well Go USA | Laemmle's Ahrya Fine Arts

‘The Assassin’ Review: Taiwan’s Oscar Entry Puts a Poetic Spin on the Action Genre
Movies | By Alonso Duralde on October 15, 2015 @ 4:02 pm Follow @aduralde



Legendary filmmaker Hou Hsiao-Hsien blends stunning imagery with intentionally enigmatic storytelling in this tale of vengeance

If video stores were still a thing in this day and age, you could imagine customers getting confused over “The Assassin” — after all, a Chinese-language film with that title and whose key art features a weapon-wielding woman immediately calls to mind a certain brand of action movie.

For master filmmaker Hou Hsiao-Hsien — who won Best Director at Cannes for the film that Taiwan is submitting as its Oscar entry this year — the tropes of the wuxia movie (the best known example of which in the U.S. is probably “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”) are merely the underpinnings for a haunting, enigmatic story of deferred, conflicted vengeance, set in ninth-century China.

In the far-off province of Weibo, which threatens to break free of imperial rule, our heroine Nie Yinniang (Shu Qi, “The Transporter,” Hou’s “Millenium Mambo”) returns to her noble parents after years in training with her aunt, a nun-princess. (There’s a hyphenate you don’t see every day.) This relative has transformed the young woman into a peerless assassin, and wants her niece to kill Weibo’s governor Tian Ji’an (Chang Chen, “The Grandmaster,” “Crouching Tiger”).

Nie Yinniang and Tian Ji’an have a complicated backstory, however: the two were once betrothed, but his subsequent wedding to another woman prompted his jilted fiancée to became a mistress of the martial arts. Hesitant to take Tian Ji’an’s life herself, Nie Yinniang nonetheless aids and abets the personal and political turmoil around him, plaguing him in ways that are quietly subtle yet no less effective.



There are indeed a handful of combat scenes in “The Assassin,” and they are gorgeously, if pragmatically, mounted. You don’t get dizzying wire work or swooping camera shots, and the choreography is ruthlessly efficient, but these moments, rare as they are, nonetheless arrive charged with adrenaline.

Hou is more interested in creating a sense of visual poetry, the enigmatic kind that requires audiences to fill in certain narrative blank spaces. (I’ve seen the film more than once and am still a little unclear about who certain supporting characters are and what motivates them, not that it ultimately matters.) Working with his usual cinematographer Mark Lee Ping Bin (who also shot the rapturously gorgeous “In the Mood for Love” and “Norwegian Wood”), Hou creates indelible images, from a whispered conversation in a candle-lit bedroom where lacy curtains billow in and out of the frame to a cliffside perch surrounded by a mountain range that disappears into the clouds over the course of a scene.

This is the sort of filmmaking that demands actors who are as open and communicative with physical gesture as they are with their voices, and Hou’s ensemble is up to the challenge, from the leads down to supporting characters with absolutely no dialogue whatsoever. (That includes a master of dark magic who has the kind of floor-length eyebrows one seems to see only in Chinese-language cinema.)

The score by Giong Lim (“A Touch of Sin”) remains spare and period-sounding — except for one action scene in which it suddenly takes a turn into 1980s action-movie synth territory — and the spare, precise editing from Liao Ching-Sung and Huang Chih-Chia balances Hou’s long takes and the relatively fast-paced action moments with graceful skill.

Hou’s brand of reserve might not be for all audiences, but arthouse admirers of cinematic stillness will find themselves enraptured by this hypnotic tale.

[GeneChing]

...here's some non-rave reviews. I don't agree with all their points. I think if you go into this film expecting an actioner, you will be sorely disappointed. But if you go in expecting an art film, you will be rewarded handsomely. And if you're a true fan of the genre, you must see it - just to weigh in on the discussion here.

Film Review: The Assassin
A trained killer must choose between duty and honor in director Hou Hsiao-hsien's first martial-arts movie.
By Daniel Eagan Oct 15, 2015



Taiwanese filmmaker Hou Hsiao-hsien won Best Director at Cannes for The Assassin, a lavishly appointed, glacially paced martial-arts movie about vendettas, betrayals and the rigors of Academy framing. Esteemed by critics, Hou's movies are at their best an acquired taste. Years in the making, The Assassin is his first wuxia title—a genre that has become the last resort of art-house directors trying to connect to a broader audience.

Set during the decline of the Tang dynasty in the ninth century, The Assassin focuses on Nie Yinniang (Shu Qi), an efficient, highly trained killer first seen dispatching a presumably corrupt official on horseback. But Yinniang's emotions get in the way during another assignment, when she spares her target after spotting his young son.

Jiaxin (Sheu Fang-yi), a sort of martial-arts nun and Yinniang's handler, angrily sends her to the Weibo province to kill its governor, Tian Ji’an (Chang Chen)—Yinniang's cousin and her former betrothed. Reacquainted with her father Nie Feng (Ni Dahong), Yinniang steals through Ji'an's court, listening to his pronouncements and decrees, spying on his family and concubine Huji (Hsieh Hsin-ying), at times sparring anonymously with his guards.

Her emotions stirred by the sight of Ji'an with his young son, Yinniang is unable to bring herself to kill him. When Ji'an orders Nie to escort a disgraced official to the border, Yinniang secretly follows, saving them from an ambush by other assassins. Now Yinniang must answer to Jiaxin, who duels her former student for disobeying her.

The plot to The Assassin relies on wuxia staples, like secret assignations, fights in birch forests, or an intruder escaping guards by leaping onto a palace rooftop. Court intrigues, double-crossing minions, cryptic officials and bumbling peasants are as fundamental to the genre as the leads' stylized combat poses and miraculous skill with weaponry. Hou buries his familiar plot under elliptical dialogue and narrative digressions.

To fans, story is less important than execution, which makes some of Hou's choices here all the more puzzling. The opening scene unfolds in black-and-white and the old Academy 1.37 aspect ratio. Hou switches to color and a 1.85 frame for a musical number, then returns to 1.37 for the remainder of the film. As a result, most of cinematographer Mark Lee Ping Bing's compositions are medium shots, with the action pulled back away from the camera.

In Hou's hands, the Academy frame emphasizes costumes and sets instead of performances. For one scene, the camera lurks behind candles and a gauzy curtain. Pretty? Yes, but also absurdly indulgent.

It takes a certain kind of skill to turn Shu Qi, one of the warmest and most charming movie stars in Asia, into a stony cypher. (Bedecked in black like Zorro, she remains glamorous.) The other performers can't break free from genre stereotypes. Villains hiss, leaders orate, teachers preach, Yinniang suffers silently.

Critics who wouldn't be caught dead at a Yuen Woo Ping or Tsui Hark movie have been blustering about Hou's idiosyncratic take on violence or his "startling bursts" of action. But the only thing startling about The Assassin's action is how poorly executed it is. The fights fly by in a blur, choreographed less for impact than to cover the actors' limited martial-arts abilities.

The Assassin does prove that if you slow it down enough, even kung fu can be boring.

‘The Assassin’ Misses Its Target
Added by Scott Stiffler on October 14, 2015.


Shu Qui, as Nie Yinniang, in a characteristically well-framed shot in Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s “The Assassin.” Courtesy Well Go USA Entertainment.

BY SEAN EGAN | “The Assassin,” Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s latest effort, which won him the Best Director Award at Cannes this year, is ostensibly a wuxia film (a popular martial arts subgenre).

Set during the Tang Dynasty, it tells the story of Nie Yinniang, a young women trained to be a deadly assassin, who returns home for the first time in years on orders to kill the man she’s betrothed to — now the leader of the most powerful military region in China. So far, so good.

After a legitimately stunning and exiting black-and-white prologue, the movie grinds to a halt. While “The Assassin” is by no means a bad movie — indeed, its formal merits are considerable — it’s certainly an incredibly frustrating one. The problem is that Hsiao-Hsien’s direction is completely at odds with the pulpy nature of the story he’s devised, and the genre that he’s chosen to work in — which may well be the point, but doesn’t provide for a particularly satisfying experience.

Everything is carefully measured to a fault. As his primary stylistic trick, Hsiao-Hsien chooses to champion silence and stillness over all else, to the point that it deflates any and all tension. Characters do not speak any more than is absolutely necessary, in order to further a plot that’s at once too thin and overly complicated.

The score (when present) is sparse, often just consisting of a drum keeping time like a metronome, further contributing to the sense that the movie is even longer than its actual runtime of 104 minutes. As do the establishing shots of the picturesque Chinese landscapes and architecture, which linger interminably, and sometimes have little or no connection to the scenes that follow (also bearing little connection to anything: the seemingly random aspect ratio shifts).

The cinematography of Mark Lee Ping Bing has been rightly lauded — every shot is immaculately framed, and, with its expressive use of color, any given moment of the film looks as though it could be a painting by a master, or a glossy photograph in a coffee-table book.

But therein lies the problem: it’s all too stationary, too inert. You might as well not even be watching a narrative feature in order to appreciate the gorgeous photography. Some may have the patience to simply sit around and appreciate the beauty; more will be bored by this surface-level beauty, untethered to any real emotion or story.

The few requisite fight scenes, which flare up to fulfill the minimum requirements for a wuxia film, are well choreographed, but also swift and abbreviated — not nearly enough of a payoff for the tedious feature-length buildup.

There’s a difference between subverting expectations and disregarding them completely. With “The Assassin,” Hsaiao-Hsien has decidedly done the latter. While intellectually the experiment is definitely interesting, it also makes for a maddeningly slow-paced film, less likely to inspire passion than induce sleep.

“The Assassin” is directed by Hou Hsiao-Hsien, and written by Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Chu Tien-wen, Hsieh Hai-Meng and Zhong Acheng. Opens Fri., Oct. 16 at the IFC Center (323 Sixth Ave., at Third St.). Visit ifccenter.com.

[Jimbo]

Well, I'm still intending to see this. Who knows? I may like it more than I expect to. I do like the old Shaw Brothers Chu Yuan/Chor Yuen-directed wuxia films, which almost never had any 'great' fights. Whether I can enjoy The Assassin as much as those old wuxias, I'll only know as I'm watching it. Much of the appeal for me of Chu Yuan's wuxias were the (usually predictable), almost Scooby-Doo-esque mysteries; the Shaw sets; the dreamlike quality of the films; and the performers themselves. With The Assassin it will be mainly to watch Shu Qi.

[GeneChing]

Any fan of the martial arts genre should see this. It is an amazing film. It's just not a great martial arts film. Just don't go with that expectation and you'll enjoy it. I was disappointed at the martial arts but knocked out by the film on the whole and I hope to see it again on the big screen. It's that kind of gorgeous, well worth the price of admission.

And if it does secure an Oscar, our genre will change.

But I don't think it will. Of course, we'll see what the rest of the field looks like.

Here are some more rave reviews from noted newspapers - the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times:

Chicago Film Fest pick of the day: 'The Assassin'

Michael Phillips
CHICAGO TRIBUNE

'The Assassin'
10:00 pm, October 20, 2015
Is this the most contemplative martial arts movie ever made? It’s certainly the most rapturous, thanks to master filmmaker Hou Hsiao-Hsien, who won the directing prize at this year’s Cannes festival. In the 9thCentury Tang Dynasty, a stealthy killer for hire (Shu Qi) stalks her prey and wrestles with her conscience in silver birch forests and other wonders photographed in remote mainland China. The Tawainese filmmaker’s patient, unblinking camera eye may throw some martial-arts fans used to zooms, frantic editing and wilder technique in general. But this is an enveloping fantasy of another time, another place and stillness interrupted, periodically and violently, by some pretty cool moves. "In a discussion with my team of young fight choreographers," Hou recently told NPR, "I made a rule never to leave the ground. You don't want to be like Spider-Man swinging around." And yet "The Assassin" floats like a butterfly.

6 p.m. Wednesday (repeats 8:15 p.m. Friday), AMC River East 21, 322 E. Illinois St. Tickets $11-$14 at chicagofilmfestival.com. Running time: 2:00.

-Michael Phillips

Hou Hsiao-Hsien's 'The Assassin' gives martial arts an art-house punch


Chang Chen in director Hsiao-Hsien Hou's movie, "The Assassin."

BY DAVID NG
October 20, 2015, 4:50 p.m.

When Hou Hsiao-Hsien set out to make his first wuxia, or martial arts, movie, it was a virtual given that the acclaimed Taiwanese director adored by the festival circuit and art-house cinephiles around the world would create a fight picture unlike any other.

With his preference for long, trance-inducing takes and an indirect storytelling style, Hou undermines the genre's high-adrenaline imperative to craft an action movie in his own distinct signature.

"The Assassin," which is currently in limited release, contains fight scenes, to be sure, but the emphasis is squarely on the textural look and feel of a 9th century Tang Dynasty court.

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"Realism is very important to me," said the director in a recent interview. "I see it as a realist movie that has fighting in it."

Hou, 68, was making a rare stop in L.A. — his first in nearly three decades. He is currently riding a wave of acclaim for "The Assassin" that began at this year's Cannes Film Festival, where he won the director award. Taiwan has submitted the film as its selection for the Academy Awards' foreign film category.

"The Assassin" follows a young female killer (Shu Qi, in her third feature with the director), who returns to her home village to eliminate a local official (Chang Chen) to whom she was once betrothed.

Shot on locations in Taiwan, Japan, China and Inner Mongolia, the movie is the biggest of Hou's career and took 1 1/2 years to shoot, on and off.

Hou said the most difficult sequence to film wasn't any of the fight scenes but an extended conversation between Chang and a concubine that is intermittently obscured by a wafting, diaphanous silk curtain.

"This took the longest of them all," he explained through an interpreter. "I shot it, but then I kept coming back to it to adjust the performances. The language they're speaking is an old form of Mandarin, and it takes practice." (The silk was imported from India.)

When it came time to shoot the fight scenes — which come in short, sudden bursts and are often over before you realize they've begun — Hou avoided imitating the balletic style of Hong Kong's Shaw Brothers and King Hu. Instead, he took inspiration from the earthier Japanese samurai movies he loved as a kid going to the cinema.

"I did anything to get in. I begged people to sneak me in, or I would piece together torn tickets," recalled the director, who grew up in the south of Taiwan.

Later, when he moved to Taipei, he encountered the Hong Kong-style wuxia pictures, but "the Japanese films were more formative for me. They're more concrete. In China, wuxia is more like a dance."

The protracted filming schedule gave rise to rumors in some cinematic circles that "The Assassin" was having money problems. Hou dismissed those whispers, saying that financing, which came from multiple countries, wasn't a problem.

He said shooting dragged on "because we shot in far-away places and often high up in the mountains."

For one visually arresting scene that comes late in the movie, Hou chose to shoot on the edge of a steep cliff in a wilderness section of central China's Hubei province. As Shu's assassin confronts her mentor, a dense fog gradually invades the frame until the characters are barely visible.

"It was very humid that day. It just happened that way," recalled the director, adding that there are no digital effects in the scene. "I seriously contemplated another take without the clouds, so you could see the rock formations, which are quite striking. But I didn't."

The movie was shot on film by Hou's longtime cinematographer Mark Lee Ping Bin. There was no discussion of shooting digitally, Lee said.

"There have been a lot of costume dramas on television and in movies of this time and place," he said via email. The crew "didn't want to be influenced by what's been done and wanted to create a distinct look."

Lee added: "I like paintings, particularly Chinese paintings of nature, so to be able to capture something like this on film means a lot to me."

"The Assassin" is Hou's first feature in nearly eight years; his last release was the French-language "Flight of the Red Balloon," starring Juliette Binoche. In between, he devoted himself to leading film festivals in Taiwan.

"It was something that I took very seriously," explained the director. He also runs a small chain of art-house cinemas in Taiwan, but he doesn't consider himself to be a film buff.

"I don't watch a lot of movies these days," he said, adding that he recently managed to catch "The Grand Budapest Hotel."

Hou was part of Taiwan's new wave of filmmakers that came to international prominence in the '80s and early '90s, and included Edward Yang and Tsai Ming-Liang.

Their films embraced the daily realities of Taiwanese life, but Hou distinguished himself with his oblique storytelling methods and hypnotic camera work that eschews most Western idioms of cinema — there's a near absence of close-ups in his films and an avoidance of the shot-reverse-shot vernacular of filming a conversation.

His 1998 film "The Flowers of Shanghai," an ornately claustrophobic depiction of 19th century brothel life, vaulted him to the top ranks of international auteurs.

But it wasn't until 2003 that he received commercial distribution in the U.S. with "Millennium Mambo," his neon-and-techno Ecstasy trip through youth culture.

"The Assassin" takes his penchant for narrative indirection to new heights, especially in the second half when romantic entanglements and political alliances become increasingly difficult to parse. The movie even confounded some of the critics who raved about it at Cannes.

Part of that is his own fault, Hou admitted.

"The script was very complete and detailed, but what happens during editing is that if I don't like something, I cut it out without regard to continuity," he explained.

"That's my problem. I have a way of making a movie like I'm making a music video — it's abstract."

He added: "There are clues in the movie, details that you can pick up. But it's true, you need to see it more than once."

david.ng@latimes.com

[GeneChing]

Current Issue
September/October 2015

Hou Hsiao-hsien’s The Assassin, Guy Maddin’s The Forbidden Room, Arnaud Desplechin’s My Golden Days, Michael Almereyda’s Experimenter, Denis Villeneuve’s Sicario, Douglas Fairbanks, Paul Schrader on widescreen, Jafar Panahi’s Taxi, the Nitrate Picture Show

If you've never read filmcomment, you can't really call yourself a connoisseur of film.


Like I said:

From a film-making perspective, it's just exquisite film-making, the kind that film students will gush over for years.

[GeneChing]

This should do well at the various film awards. It's that kind of gorgeous film.

The Assassin leads APSA nominees



By Kevin Ma

Fri, 30 October 2015, 13:35 PM (HKT)
Awards News

HOU Hsiao-hsien 侯孝賢's The Assassin 刺客聶隱娘 has secured the most nominations at this year's Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA).

The Taiwan wuxia drama is nominated for Best Feature Film, Achievement in Directing, and Achievement in Cinematography.

South Korea's End of Winter 철원기행 and Alive 산다 each took two nominations. In addition to Best Feature Film for both films, Winter has nominations for Best Performance by an Actress (LEE Yeong-ran 이영란) whilst Alive is nominated for Achievement in Directing.

Thailand's Cemetery of Splendour รักที่ขอนแก่น is the only other film nominated for two awards: Best Feature Film and Achievement in Directing for Apichatpong "Joe" WEERASETHAKUL อภิชาติพงศ์ วีระเศรษฐกุล.

KUROSAWA Kiyoshi 黒沢清's Journey to the Shore 岸辺の旅 rounds out the Best Feature Film category.

In addition to Hou, Weerasethakul and Alive's PARK Jung-bum 박정범, Stranger Zhat's Ermek TURSUNOV and Under Electric Cloud's Alexey German Jr. are also nominated for the Achievement in Directing award.

Turkey's Motherland, Turkey's Frenzy, China's The Coffin in the Mountain 殯棺, Kazakhstan's Tent and Sri Lanka's Dark in the White Light Sulanga gini aran are nominated for Best Screenplay.

The Find's Aleksei Guskov, Right Now, Wrong Then 지금은맞고그때는틀리다's JEONG Jae-yeong 정재영 | 鄭在詠, Downriver's Reef Ireland, The President's Misha Gomiashvili and Tharlo ཐར་ལོ | 塔洛's Shide Nyima 西德尼瑪 are nominated for Best Performance by an Actor.

An あん's KIKI Kirin 樹木希林, Lorna's Shamaine BUENCAMINO, Avalanche's Fatemeh Motamed Arya and The Gulls' Evgeniya Mandzhieva join Lee in the Best Performance by an Actress race.

As announced earlier, the awards will be decided by a jury led by South Korea's KIM Dong-ho 김동호 | 金東虎. The winners will be announced in Brisbane on 26 Nov 2015

[GeneChing]

This film figures prominently in Craig Reid's annual SDAFF review: San Diego Asian Film Festival 2015: Assassins, Zombies and the Next Ronda Rousey

[GeneChing]

5 out of 11. Assassin did show at my neighborhood theater, but only for a week and I didn't get out to it.

Taiwan takes back spotlight at Golden Horse



By Kevin Ma
Sun, 22 November 2015, 10:00 AM (HKT)

After being dominated by films from China last year, Taiwan took back the spotlight at the 52nd Golden Horse Awards 金馬獎 last night as local titles The Assassin 刺客聶隱娘 and Thanatos, Drunk 醉・生夢死 were the top winners at Taipei's Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall.

Receiving 11 nominations, The Assassin took home five awards: Best Film, Best Director, Best Makeup & Costume Design, Best Cinematography, and Best Sound Effects. The wuxia drama is the first film by HOU Hsiao-hsien 侯孝賢 to win the top prize at the Awards, for whom he served as the committee chairman between 2009 and 2014.

However, The Assassin's fate seemed unsure throughout the night as the awards' final round jury – led by CHEN Kuo-fu 陳國富 – didn't show clear preference for any film.

CHANG Tso-chi 張作驥's Thanatos, Drunk was also a major winner with four awards: Best Supporting Actress (LÜ Hsueh-feng 呂雪鳳), Best New Performer (LEE Hong-chi 李鴻其), Best Original Music and Best Film Editing.

Among the other films that shared the spotlight, Pema Tseden 萬瑪才旦 won Best Adapted Screenplay for Tharlo ཐར་ལོ | 塔洛; JIA Zhangke 賈樟柯 won Best Original Screenplay for Mountains May Depart 山河故人; the giant indoor sets of Johnnie TO 杜琪峯's Office 華麗上班族 was recognised with Best Art Direction; Michael NING 白只 won Best Supporting Actor for Port of Call 踏雪尋梅; and XU Haofeng 徐浩峰 won Best Action Choreography for his forthcoming The Master 師父.

Mountains May Depart also won the festival's Audience Award.

Frankie CHEN 陳玉珊 , who was a favourite to win Best New Director for youth romance Our Times 我的少女時代, lost the category to BI Gan 畢贛's Kaili Blues 路邊野餐. The local blockbuster was nominated for three awards, but did not win any.

FENG Xiaogang 馮小剛 – who did not attend the ceremony — won Best Actor for GUAN Hu 管虎's Mr. Six 老炮兒. In one of the night's most competitive categories, Zinnia Flower 百日告別's Karena LAM 林嘉欣 beat out Mountains May Depart's ZHAO Tao 趙濤 and The Assassin's SHU Qi 舒淇 for the Best Actress Award.

Veteran actress LI Lihua 李麗華 made a brief appearance on stage to accept her Lifetime Achievement Award from Jackie CHAN 成龍 (who played her son in Big and Little Wong Tin Bar 大小黄天霸 (1962)), but the 91-year-old was not able to give a speech.


52ND GOLDEN HORSE AWARDS WINNERS

Best Feature Film: The Assassin
Best Director: Hou Hsiao-hsien for The Assassin
Best Actor: Feng Xiaogang for Mr. Six
Best Actress: Karena Lam for Zinnia Flower
Best Supporting Actor: Michael Ning for Port of Call
Best Supporting Actress: Lü Hsueh-feng for Thanatos, Drunk
Best New Director: Bi Gan for Kaili Blues
Best New Performer: Lee Hong-chi for Thanatos, Drunk
Best Original Screenplay: Jia Zhangke for Mountains May Depart
Best Adapted Screenplay: Pema Tseden for Tharlo
Best Cinematography: Mark LEE 李屏賓 for The Assassin
Best Visual Effects: KIM Uk 김욱 | 金旭 for The Taking of Tiger Mountain 3D 智取威虎山
Best Art Direction: William CHANG 張叔平, Alfred YAU 邱偉明 for Office
Best Makeup & Costume Design: HWARNG Wern-ying 黃文英 for The Assassin
Best Action Choreography: Xu Haofeng for The Master
Original Music Award for Best Film: LIN Shang-te 林尚德, TSENG Yun-fang 曾韻方 for Thanatos, Drunk
Best Original Film Song: Panay 太陽的孩子
Best Film Editing: Chang Tso-chi for Thanatos, Drunk
Best Sound Effects: TU Duu-chih 杜篤之, CHU Shih-yi 朱仕宜, WU Shu-yao 吳書瑤 for The Assassin
Outstanding Taiwanese Filmmaker of the Year: Hou Hsiao-hsien
Audience Choice Award: Mountains May Depart
Lifetime Achievement Award: Li Lihua

[GeneChing]

In Pictures: Golden Horse Awards 2015
PUBLISHEDNOV 22, 2015, 4:20 PM SGT

Some of the biggest names in Asian cinema gathered in Taiwan for the 52nd Golden Horse Film Awards on Saturday (Nov 21). Despite the rainy weather, hundreds of excited fans turned up to see their idols arriving on the red carpet at the Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall in Taipei.

Always stunning.

[GeneChing]

Selected by BFI critics.

The 20 best films of 2015
The top movies of the year, as chosen by 168 critics from around the world.
Sight & Sound contributors
27 November 2015


1. The Assassin
UK festival release 11 October 2014 (London Film Festival) / UK cinema release 22 January 2016
(Nie Yinniang) Hou Hsiao-Hsien, France/Hong Kong/Taiwan

Carol (2015)
2. Carol
UK release date 27 November 2015
Todd Haynes, United Kingdom/USA

3. Mad Max Fury Road
UK cinema release date 15 May 2015 / DVD, Blu-ray and download 5 October 2015
George Miller, Australia/USA

4. Arabian Nights
UK festival release 11 October 2015 (London Film Festival) / UK cinemas and VoD release Spring 2016
(As mil e uma noites) Miguel Gomes, Switzerland/France/Germany/Portugal

5. Cemetery of Splendour
UK festival release 13 October 2015 (London Film Festival) / UK cinemas Spring 2016
Apichatpong Weerasethakul, France/United Kingdom / Germany/Malaysia/Thailand

6. No Home Movie
UK preview screening 30 October 2015 / no known further distribution plans
Chantal Akerman, Belgium/France

7. 45 Years
UK cinema and VoD release 28 August 2015 / DVD & Blu-ray 11 January 2016
Andrew Haigh, UK

8. Son of Saul
UK festival release 10 October 2014 (London Film Festival) / UK cinema release 1 April 2016 tbc
Laszlo Nemes, Hungary

=9. Amy
UK cinema release date 3 July 2015 / DVD, Blu-ray and download 2 November 2015
Asif Kapadia, UK

=9. Inherent Vice
UK cinema release 30 January 2015 / DVD, Blu-ray and download 8 June 2015
Paul Thomas Anderson, USA

=11. Anomalisa
UK festival release 16 October 2014 (London Film Festival Surprise Film) / UK cinema release 11 March 2016 tbc
Charlie Kaufman & Duke Johnson, USA

=11. It Follows
UK cinema release 27 February 2014 / DVD, Blu-ray and download 29 June 2015
David Robert Mitchell, USA

13. Phoenix
UK cinema release 8 May 2015 / DVD, Blu-ray and download 31 August 2015
Christian Petzold, Germany/Poland

=14. Girlhood
UK cinema release 8 May 2015 / DVD, Blu-ray and download 7 September 2015
Céline Sciamma, France

=14. Hard to Be a God
UK cinema release 7 August 2015 / DVD and Blu-ray 14 September 2015
Aleksei German, Russia

=14. Inside Out
UK cinema release 24 July 2015 / DVD, Blu-ray and download 23 November 2015
Pete Docter, USA

=14. Tangerine
UK cinema release 13 November 2015 / download 1 February 2016 tbc
Sean Baker, USA

=14. Taxi Tehran
UK cinema release 30 October 2015 / DVD & Blu-ray 22 February 2016
Jafar Panahi, Iran

=19. Horse Money
UK cinema release 18 September 2015 / DVD & Blu-ray 14 March 2016
Pedro Costa, Portugal

=19. The Look of Silence
UK cinema release 12 June 2015 / DVD & Blu-ray 12 October 2015
Joshua Oppenheimer, Denmark / Finland / UK / Indonesia / Norway

[GeneChing]

Did NOT make the cut.

Oscar Nominations 2016


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