The Assassin

2015 • 105 minutes

About this movie

Back with his first film in 8 years, legendary Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien wowed this year's Cannes Film Festival (where he won Best Director) with his awe-inspiring THE ASSASSIN - a wondrous take on the traditional wuxia film. The story is simple, if elusive - in 9th-century China, Nie Yinniang is a young woman who was abducted in childhood from a decorated general and raised by a nun who trained her in the martial arts. After 13 years of exile, she is returned to the land of her birth as an exceptional assassin, with orders to kill her betrothed husband-to-be. She must confront her parents, her memories, and her long-repressed feelings in a choice to sacrifice the man she loves or break forever with the sacred way of the righteous assassins. Rich with shimmering, breathing texture and punctuated by brief but unforgettable bursts of action, THE ASSASSIN is a martial arts film like none made before it.© 2015 SPOTFILMS LTD., ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Ratings and reviews

Seems like there may have been an interesting plot in here somewhere, but it was impossible for me to follow because the movie is so boring and needlessly long that I couldn't really keep my mind from wandering. Action scenes were mediocre. 85% of the time nothing is happening. Lots of shots of goats just sitting there, candles flickering, etc.

Rented it, thank goodness. Beloved at Cannes, they were clearly only pretending to watch, perhaps they were playing flappy bird or using illegal chemicals, and only looked up occasionally to see the pretty scenery. Fast forward to the goat scene at 1:40 and you will see the moment of greatest suspense when the Billy lifts his tail, but of course the camera cuts away before we learn the true fate of the hay beneath him.

This movie was sooooo slow. So many shots with nothing going on that added nothing to it. Since it could have easily been edited down 30 minutes (or less) without losing anything, I'm guessing someone wanted to stretch it out to a feature and ruined it. Very little action. So much of it seems like a slide show there's so little going on.