Can people kill someone they love?
Nie Yinniang, a female slayer, is tasked to eliminate Tian Ji'an, a childhood sweetheart who is now a high-ranking government official, and the fate of their lives and those around them unfolds in Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s “The Assassin” ("Nie Yinniang").
Taiwanese actress Shu Qi plays the assassin out to kill Tian Ji'an, the governor played by fellow Taiwanese Chang Chen.
Focus Taiwan News Channel reported that Hou told Shu to be “emotional but expressionless.”
Hou took inspiration in making the movie from the short story “Nie Yinniang” he read back in college. Tian Ji'an was a real-life general who lived during the Tang Dynasty (618–907).
In his first wuxia film, Hou kept the display of martial arts as realistic as it could get. Los Angeles Times reported that he said to reporters, "I don’t like the floral style of fighting.”
Called by media as a “slow-burning minimalist drama,” weekly American magazine Variety praised the movie for being “highly crafted.” Los Angeles Times said that it possesses “exacting visual style.”
Hou won the Best Director Prize at the 68th edition of the annual Cannes Film Festival in May 2015 for this movie.
American independent director-screenwriter Jim Jarmusch once described Hou as being “not only the crowning jewel of contemporary Taiwanese cinema but an international treasure.”
The 68-year-old internationally acclaimed filmmaker’s first movie was the 1980 rom-com “Lovable You” (“Cute Girl”), which he also wrote. Prior to “The Assassin,” his last work was the 2007 drama “Flight of the Red Balloon” shot in Paris, France, with award-winning French actress Juliette Binoche playing the lead.
Hou received the Jury Prize for “Puppetmaster” at the 46th Cannes Film Festival in 1993.
The Golden Lion (“Leone d'Oro”), Venice Film Festival’s highest prize, was bestowed to him for his historical drama, “A City of Sadness,” during the festival’s 46th edition in 1989.
Shu, 39, and Chang, 38, first paired together in Hou’s 2005 drama, “Three Times.” She also appeared in Hou’s 2001 romance-drama, “Millennium Mambo.”
The Golden Horse and Hong Kong Film-winning actress had her international break in Louis Leterrier and Corey Yuen’s 2002 French action film “The Transporter,” where she starred opposite Hollywood actor Jason Statham. Yuen also directed Shu in the 2002 action-romance “So Close,” together with Karen Mok and Zhao Wei.
Shu first worked with Mok in Derek Yee and Lo Chi-Leung’s 1996 sex-comedy, “Viva Erotica.”
Chang is Zhang Ziyi’s love interest in Ang Lee’s 2000 mega-blockbuster, “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.”
They say that true love never dies, but what happens when one attempts to kill that one true love?
“The Assassin” will be shown on Aug. 27.