THE ASSASSIN

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.