The Assassin (2015)

The Assassin (2015)
Chinese Title: 聶隱娘
Translation: Nie Yinniang

Starring: Shu Qi, Chang Chen, Zhou Yun, Nikki Hsieh Hsin-Ying, Sheu Fang-Yi, Ethan Juan Ching-Tien, Komuro Tetsuya, Xu Fan, Zuo Xiaoqing, Tsumabuki Satoshi
Director: Hou Hsiao-Hsien
Action Director: Liu Mingzhe

Hou Hsiao-Hsien is one of the biggest names in Taiwanese cinema...or was one of the biggest names. I suppose his legacy still stands, but he recently retired due to Alzheimer's Disease (not unlike Bruce Willis and dementia). That said, he, along with Edward Yang, was one of the main figures associated with the Taiwanese New Wave movement. He was not extremely prolific, but was probably moreso than, say, Wong Kar-Wai, Hong Kong's premier arthouse director. He was quite active in the 1980s, but by the 90s, was averaging a movie every 2-3 years. The Assassin ended up being his final film before retirement.

The film is based on an old martial arts tale--8th century to be exact--by Pei Xing. During the latter days of the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907 A.D.), there is your usual civil unrest, with some of the outer provinces distancing themselves evermore further from the Court. One of said provinces is Weibo (comprised of what today are the Hanban and Hebei states), which is currently ruled by Tian Jian (r. 796-812 -- yes, a real-life person, played by Chang Chen of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and The Grand Master). Tian Jian is the son of the previous Lord, or Military Governor, Tian Xu. Tian Jian was the son of a concubine, but was raised by Xu's main wife, a princess from the court. We never meet Tian Jian's parents, but they are nonetheless integral to the story.

Our story revolves around Nie Jinniang (Shu Qi, of Shanghai Fortress and The Transporter), the daughter of Commander Nie Feng (Ni Dahong, of Curse of the Golden Flower and A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop). Nie Feng is Tian Jian's uncle, which makes Jinniang the governor's cousin and, at some point, his betrothed. That stopped being a thing after a series of incidents that resulted in Jinniang being whisked away by a Taoist nun (Sheu Fangyi) for a "private education." What that ultimately meant was that Jinniang was going to be trained in the martial arts for the purpose of being an assassin for the Court. After a few "test" missions--including one she fails on account of not wanting to take a life in front of a child--Jinniang is given the mission to assassinate Tian Jian.

Jinniang returns home under the pretext of having completed her studies, and she is well received by her mother, grandmother, and even Tian Jian's wife (Zhou Yun, of Bodyguards and Assassins and Warriors of Heaven and Earth). It does not take long for Jinniang to reveal herself as an assassin, although one has to wonder if she really is cut out for this sort of work. The answer is "ultimately" no. The Assassin is a 108-minute film about an assassin who is given a job, decides not to do it, and then decides that she wants to do something else instead.

There are other things going on in the film, such as strife between Tian Jian's wife and Huji, his favorite concubine (Nikki Hsieh, of Tai Chi 0 and Tai Chi Hero). Tian Jian has problems with his own brother over what course of action to take regarding the neighboring provinces that would ingratiate (or not) the Court. There appears to be some sort of plot by the Court to kill different members of Tian family. That results in a prolonged sequence where Jinniang takes a break from her mission to protect the caravan taking a member of the Tian family to a new post from assassins.

The Assassin is definitely a minimalist film. The main plot is minimal. The dialog is minimal--Shu Qi only has a few lines in the entire movie. The action sequences are few. Exposition comes in fits and spurts from the characters, although nothing is explained quite enough to give us all the historical context we need, or the character background we're curious about. There is a lot we the viewer are expected to the meet the filmmakers halfway on.

So, why watch this? Mainly because of the visuals. The entire film is like a series of Romantic landscape paintings. Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Mark Lee (Director of Photography -- Tiger Cage II; Wing Chun; Millenium Mambo), and Yao Hung-I (Cinematographer - Reflections and Hometown Boy) transform the film into this great palate of beautiful Chinese landscapes, much like you would see in a museum. Almost every scene could be freeze-framed and transformed into a Romantic painting, like Albert Bierstadt's "Yosemite Valley" series of paintings, or the works of Henri-Joseph Harpignies and Giuseppe De Nittis. Like paintings where the humans are dwarfed by the grandiosity of the nature. Even one of the fight scenes is filmed like that. The more intimate scenes between the characters are filmed in a way that, if paused, could make an excellent subject for a 19th-century Orientalist painting. To sum it up: The Assassin works as a moving gallery of Romantic-era paintings.

What it does not work as, however, is as a film for action and fight choreography aficionados. There are five or six fight sequences, each of which lasting anywhere from 5 to 15 seconds, give or take a couple of seconds. The action director is Liu Mingzhe, whose work as Assistant Martial Arts Director on films like Reign of Assassins and A Battle of Wits suggest that he was a protégé of sorts with Stephen Tung Wai. The fight sequences are portrayed the way most authors--excepting Scott Blasingame--would write them in prose: just a few moves and then back to the narrative. Where Mr. Blasingame will take a 10-minute fight scene from an imaginary film and convert the entire thing into prose, the fights here are like the ones described in Matthew Boroson's The Girl With Ghost Eyes.

The Assassin is not a film for everyone, but it is not a bad film. It makes for a fascinating comparison with Zhang Yimou's wuxia films, what with their Expressionistic use of color symbolism and Rococo levels of opulence. Contrast with the more Romantic ideals of art that Hou Hsiao-Hsien uses in his visuals here. Both filmmakers can be accused of being too pretentious, although action fans will definitely get more out of Zhang Yimou's works than The Assassin. But fans of general cinema should make an effort to watch this film, in any case.