‘The Assassin‘ is a cinematic event. The film made in 2015 by Taiwanese director Hsiao-Hsien Hou came after eight years of silence, in which he had not directed any feature film. Another seven years have passed without a new feature film, although there is news that one is in the making. Until the release of that next one, ‘The Assassin‘ offers enough reasons for cinematic satisfaction, interesting debates, relating to what each of us knows about China’s history and its culture and traditions, very different from those of many of us. ‘The Assassin‘ was also the director’s first film with a story set more than a millennium ago. It is based on a story that has become part of the tradition, as is the case with many episodes in China’s millennial history. Like all great creators – writers or filmmakers – Hsiao-Hsien Hou, even when he brings a historical episode to the screen and tells stories about legendary heroes, tells a lot about people and the world today.
At first glance, the script brings to the screen a ‘wuxia’ story about heroes practicing martial arts. It’s just that in ‘The Assassin’ the main hero is a young woman named Nie Yinniang, trained from the age of ten by a nun aunt to become a lethal assassin. The story has its origins in a legend from the seventh or eighth century, during the Tang Dynasty, considered a golden age in the history of imperial China, one of the peak periods of culture but also a period of struggle to strengthen central authority. Yinniang is sent to the Weibo region, then on the outskirts of the empire, with orders to assassinate her cousin, Tian Jian, the governor of the province. However, her conscience does not allow the girl to carry out the orders and be the killing machine she was trained to be. The personal conflict between authority and individual will is one of the keys to interpreting the film. But it is not the only one. In a world dominated by men, the characters who control the events in ‘The Assassin‘ are women: Yinniang herself, her aunt and martial arts mentor, the wife of her cousin who coordinates the intrigues at the governor’s court. A third level of complexity is provided by the internal political conflict. The Taiwanese director chose an episode in the history of China that refers to a rebellious province that was to be brought under the control of the central authority. However, the methods of force do not seem to succeed and this seems to be symbolic in a film which is a co-production between the studios in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China, and which is filmed in part in Japan.
Political and feminist messages are well-wrapped in an exceptional cinematic aesthetic. The cinematography combines beauty with expressiveness, and offers an abundance of wide shots in nature, reducing people to their true size. This is also one of the compositional ideas and principles of traditional Chinese painting. Yinniang’s role is played with elegance and dignity by Shu Qi, who is one of the director’s favorite actresses, collaborating on some of his previous films. The fight scenes are short but effective, it is clear that Hsiao-Hsien Hou uses the wuxia genre as a vehicle to make the audience resonate with more complex ideas, but giving due honor to the action, when and as needed. I’m not competent enough to appreciate how historically authentic the costumes and sets are, but they are certainly beautiful and consistent with the aesthetics of the film. For the viewer with little knowledge of the ancient history of China, a minimum of preparation through reading makes it easier to watch, the few lines of explanation at the beginning being quite brief. Skillfully using the format of historical action films, ‘The Assassin‘ is a complex and aesthetically pleasing film, offering a memorable cinematic experience.