In 8th century China, 10-year-old general's daughter Nie Yinniang is handed over to a nun who initiates her into the martial arts, transforming her into an exceptional assassin charged with eliminating cruel and corrupt local governors. One day, having failed in a task, she is sent back by her mistress to the land of her birth, with orders to kill the man to whom she was betrothed - a cousin who now leads the largest independent military region in North China. After 13 years ... (Full plot summary below)
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In 8th century China, 10-year-old general's daughter Nie Yinniang is handed over to a nun who initiates her into the martial arts, transforming her into an exceptional assassin charged with eliminating cruel and corrupt local governors. One day, having failed in a task, she is sent back by her mistress to the land of her birth, with orders to kill the man to whom she was betrothed - a cousin who now leads the largest independent military region in North China. After 13 years of exile, the young woman must confront her parents, her memories and her long-repressed feelings. A slave to the orders of her mistress, Nie Yinniang must choose: sacrifice the man she loves or break forever with the sacred way of the righteous assassins.
Leave your thoughts about The Assassin.
| Village VoiceStephanie ZacharekHou 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. |
| NewsdayJohn AndersonNot for everyone, but gloriously cinematic, utterly absorbing. |
| The Film StageZhuo-Ning SuUnhurried, mood-driven, pregnant with a transcendent reflection on life and death, The Assassin is a singular vision realized with absolute mastery of style and a lightness of touch that’s to die for. |
| Los Angeles TimesMark OlsenCombining Hou's patient, observant style with a historical martial arts tale, the film is a fascinating hybrid of craft, genre and story. Beautiful to look at and with deeply felt emotions, the film has a meditative aura punctured by sharp bouts of fighting. |
| Daily Telegraph (UK)Robbie CollinSilk curtains flutter and fall, candles glow, fires crackle softly in the grate. Every scene, every shot, has been composed with total, Kubrickian precision, and calibrated for maximum, breath-quickening impact. |
| VarietyJustin ChangA mesmerizing slow burn of a martial-arts movie that boldly merges stasis and kinesis, turns momentum into abstraction, and achieves breathtaking new heights of compositional elegance: Shot for shot, it’s perhaps the most ravishingly beautiful film Hou has ever made, and certainly one of his most deeply transporting. |
| CinegarageErick EstradaA stealthy film with an abrupt story full of surprises. [Full review in Spanish] |
| Antagony & EcstasyTim BraytonA completely essential new entry in the great career of Hou Hsiao-Hsien. |
| Movie TalkJason BestAs beguilingly elusive as it is exquisite. |
| NOW TorontoPaul EnnisThe Assassin is a mashup between a Kurosawa samurai movie and an Ozu observational drama, moving from scenes of court life that are almost static to sudden kinetic action. |
