✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

You have reached the limit of free articles.


To enjoy unlimited access to Culture Whisper sign up for FREE.
Find out more about Culture Whisper

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy

Each week, we send newsletters and communication featuring articles, our latest tickets invitations, and exclusive offers.

Occasional information about discounts, special offers and promotions.


OR
LOG IN

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

Thanks for signing up to Culture Whisper.
Please check your inbox for a confirmation email and click the link to verify your account.



EXPLORE CULTURE WHISPER
✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy
Forgot your username or password?
Don't have an account? Sign Up

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

If you click «Log in with Facebook» and are not a Culture Whisper user, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and to our Privacy Policy, which includes our Cookie Use

Support Us Login
  • Home
  • Going Out
    • Things to do
    • Food & Drink
    • Theatre
    • Visual Arts
    • Cinema
    • Kids
    • Festival
    • Gigs
    • Dance
    • Classical Music
    • Opera
    • Immersive
    • Talks
  • Staying In
    • TV
    • Books
    • Cook
    • Podcast
    • Design
    • Netflix
  • Life & Style
    • Beauty
    • Fashion
    • Gifting
    • Wellbeing
    • Lifestyle
    • Shopping
    • Jewellery
  • Explore
  • Shopping
  • CW SHOPS
  • Support Us
  • Get Started
  • Tickets
  • CW SHOPS
Get the Best of London Life, Culture and Style
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
Cinema

The Assassin film review ★★★★★ "lavish and beguiling"

22 Jan 16 – 22 Mar 16, times vary

New film The Assassin is a much anticipated return for Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao Hsien.

By CW Contributor on 20/1/2016

Shu Qi, The Assassin
Shu Qi, The Assassin
The Assassin film review "lavish and beguiling" 4 The Assassin film review "lavish and beguiling" Natalie Sauer
Much lauded director Hou Hsiao Hsien's new wuxia picture has been building hype since it started production in 2010. New film The Assassin tells of a female Tang Dynasty assassin who falls in love with her target.



Taiwanese director Hou Hsiou-Hsien, best known for his dedication to social realism, makes his first foray into wuxia – Chinese ancient warrior fiction – with The Assassin. The film competed for the Cannes Palme D'Or, coming away with awards for Best Director and Best Soundtrack, and now comes to grace London's screens.
Set in 8th century China during the Tang Dynasty, Hou's film follows Nie Yinniang (Shu Qi) a young woman who has been raised a killer by her guardian, a nun, and commissioned to return home to kill her cousin, to whom she was once betrothed. Torn between duty and affection for her childhood friend, she wrestles with her emotions in an attempt to carry out the task.
"Abandon the narrative thread...and bask in the aesthetic beauty of the thing"
In comparison to Ang Lee and its high action predecessors, Hou Hsiou-Hsien's first attempt at emanating the wuxia genre beats to a very different drum. Fixed perspective shots and extremely long takes might make the experience feel static compared with the likes of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but The Assassin is not patience-testing: as viewers, we are practically encouraged rather to abandon the narrative thread, and to bask instead the aesthetic beauty of the thing (a good thing too, for it's often hard to keep up with Hou's famously elliptical storytelling – or as he puts it, "I don’t mind if people don’t understand my films").
Every scene is skilfully composed, richly dressed and impossibly gorgeous. Hou makes full use of his compact 4:3 aspect ratio – static, his actors resemble a beautifully positioned chess board, and when they move, they glide in and out of the frame like dancers on a stage.
Beguiling in its ambiguity
The interiors are lavishly adorned, paying homage to the kingly courts of the past. The simple picture of servants drawing a bath is painted so sensually that Hou almost transports his viewers to this world of reverent luxury: a sense of authenticity pervades throughout the film.
Stillness and quiet abound to make those brief moments of violent action all the more arresting: the swish of a sword or the slice of a dagger ring out into the cicada-sung night: so fleeting they could have been imagined.
Shu Qi puts in a passionate performance as the intoxicatingly beautiful but deadly Yinniang, as she weeps into her hands or stands stoically on the threshold of her victim. Chang Chen, too, as Yinniang's cousin and target, manages an understated yet hypnotic performance as no-nonsense ruler, expressing his rage through not words but rapid gestures; complementing Yinniang's every downturned gaze with a vicious thrust of his fist. Supernatural elements, too, gently interweave with the ostensibly political plot of the tale, increasingly beguiling in their ambiguity.
Deeply passionate and authentic
Hou's elliptical storytelling might put some off, but the experience is cathartic, gentle and beautiful, deeply passionate and authentic. Those unfamiliar with Hou's work may be expecting a more coherent narrative or faster paced action: but his latest work is a thing of beauty that needs to be seen to be believed.



by India Halstead

What The Assassin film review "lavish and beguiling"
Where Various Locations | MAP
Nearest tube Leicester Square (underground)
When 22 Jan 16 – 22 Mar 16, times vary
Price £ determined by cinema
Website Click here to go to the film's IMDB page



Most popular

Things to do in London this weekend: 26–29 May
Things to do in London this weekend: 26–29 May
Best exhibition in London now
Top exhibitions on now in London
Irene Maiorino and Alba Rohrwacher in My Brilliant Friend season 4, HBO/Sky Atlantic (Photo: HBO)
My Brilliant Friend, season 4, Sky Atlantic: first-look photo, release date, plot, cast

Don't miss:


  • 1. 2015 ON SCREEN

    We look back at the best films of the year

    2. ROOM

    We interview the director of Frank and new genre-defying drama

    3. TARANTINO RETROSPECTIVE

    BFI celebrates the work of the film industry's most notorious gangster

    4. WHAT WE'LL BE WATCHING

    The most exciting films coming up this year

    5. JAPANESE CINEMA

    New season at the ICA celebrates Japanese filmmaking at its best

Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).

Martial-arts

Action

Hsiao-Hsien Hou

Qi Shu

You might like

  • Analogue Basement: Analogue Pre‑curring

    London Short Film Festival 2016

  • Noble film still

    Noble film review ★★★★★

  • The Hateful Eight film still

    The Hateful Eight film review ★★★★★

  • Secret Cinema: February 2016

    Secret Cinema: February 2016



  • The Culture Whisper team
  • Support Us
  • Tickets
  • Contact us
  • Press
  • FAQ
  • Privacy
  • Terms and conditions
  • Cookies
  • Discover
  • Venues
  • Restaurants
  • Stations
  • Boroughs
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
×