27th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival Film Screenings & Events (Photo : Getty Images)
For elevating the martial arts genre into the realm of art done through a superb visual style, a movie. made in Taiwan won the Best Foreign Language Film award. "The Assassin" got the nod of a special jury of international film critics at the 27th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival.
Directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien from Taiwan, the movie tells the story of Yinniang (played by Shu Qi), a beautiful woman during 9th century China - an era noted for political unrest - who is an expert swordsman, deployed to her home country to kill the military governor. Her target is the maiden's cousin and childhood lover, Tian Ji'an, played by Chang Chen.
Over 170 movies from more than 60 countries participated in the Palm Springs International Film Festival which has a reputation for a good selection of foreign movies, reports Sina.
Among the comments on the film are that it is masterful and the best film also of the Cannes Film Festival in France, says film critic John Powers of NPR. Variety entertainment writer Justin Chang describes it as "deeply transporting," while Nick James of Sight & Sound says it is "groundbreaking cinema."
The New York Times film reviewer Manohla Dargis notes the use of palace intrigue as a theme and praises "The Assassin" for its use of "the most ravishingly beautiful images" to have graced the premier French filmfest.
Hou won best director for the same movie in the Cannes Film Festival. The movie, produced by Well Go USA Entertainment, was also Taiwan's entry to the New York Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival.
Although the storyline appears to be an old one, Hou tells The Guardian that plot is not the only way to appeal to moviegoers. He points to landscape, character and details as the other ways for the audience to get the message of the film, which he used 440,000 feet of film, several times over his average of 20,000 feet.
The director, notes The Guardian film critic Xan Brooks, created a straightforward martial arts epic, but manages to twist the genre into abstract shapes by conjuring up "a whirl of inky blacks and midnight blues."
Other Chinese films recognized in the festival are "Mountains May Depart" mainland director Jia Zhangke and "Utopians" by director Scud from Hong Kong.
