The Chinese Imperial Court and the Weibo court in the provinces are locked in a competition for power in 9th century China. Nie Yinniang played by Shu Qi is the 10-year-old daughter of a general in the Weibo court who is abducted and trained to be a martial arts master and an assassin dedicated to eliminating corrupt local governors. She is being trained by Jiaxin played by Sheu Fang-yi a princess-nun who turns her into a master assassin. We see just how successful her education has been when Nie Yinniang slits the throat of a man with lightning speed.
But Nie Yinniang’s Achilles Heel is her kind heart and when it causes her to fail to assassinate someone that her mistress Jiaxin has ordered her to kill Jiaxin sends her back to the land of her birth with orders to kill Lord Tian the governor of Weibo played by Chang Chen, the man she was betrothed to as a child.
The court of Weibo where Lord Tian rules and enjoys his wife, concubines, servants and retainers is one of ravishing splendour, saturated colours and its visual beauty is one of the highlights of the film. The excesses and intrigues of the royal court include a sorcerer who turns a few magical tricks adding to the fantasy quality of the court. But Nie Yinniang is confronted by a moral dilemma when she returns to the land of her birth and sees all this corruption and excess.
The plot thickens to the point where it is really rather hard to follow although the visual beauty and martial arts action make it almost unimportant. There is so much to just sit back and enjoy. Cinematographer Mark Lee Ping Bin has shot the film in a formal style contrasting lush period interiors and costumes with beautiful shots of the surrounding landscape and countryside. Production and costume designer Hwarng Wern-ying deserves a top billing as one of the stars of the film while the neatly choreographed sword fights and martial arts action are skilfully handled by the production team and the young Taiwanese actress Shu Qi. Both Shu Qi and Chang Chen appeared in Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s earlier 2005 film Three Times.
This is Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s first film since his 2007 Flight of the Red Balloon starring Juliette Binoche. This is also the biggest budget film Hsiao-Hsien has made and fabulous art direction means it is certainly the most beautiful film to watch in Cannes this year. The only thing that might make the film struggle to find its audience is that it falls somewhere between the martial arts genre and art house historical period genre. Rather than the drawn out martial arts sequences that the genre’s fans relish Hsiao-Hsien dispenses with the fights and tricks at lightning speed while at the same time there is not much dialogue and the historical storyline is difficult to follow. But overall the sheer beauty and poetry of The Assassin is likely to triumph over any questions of pigeon-holing according to genre.
Credits (Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, France)
Directed by Hou Hsiao-Hsien
Cast:Shu Qi, Chang Chen, Zhou Yun, Tsumabuki Satoshi, Juan Ching-tian, Hseih Hsin-ying, Sheu Fang-yi
