The Assassin - Subtlety and Beauty on 35mm

The Assassin, direct by Hsiao-hsien Hou, is about a woman who was taken as a child by a "nun" and trained to be an assassin.  While unmatched in combat, she fails a mission due to the target's child being with him.  Her master sends her back to where she was born and orders her to kill the man she was promised to marry, a man she cared for before she was taken.  She must now decide where her loyalties are; with her master or with the man she loved as a child.

From the beginning of the film, it is unbelievable has beautiful this film is...even as it starts in black and white.  The setting of rural China with majestic mountains, fields, forests, and marshes is a pleasure to watch, enhanced by the clarity of the 35mm print.  Hou, who won best director at Cannes for this film, lingers on scenes longer than most, but it allows one to soak in at all in.

These shots also serve another purpose, I think, in that it allows you to think more about the plot.  This is a slow paced movie that does not spell everything out for you.  The story is there, but you will need to pay attention to characters and names.  It also allows you to appreciate how certain scenes are shot.  There were a few scenes shot with sheet drapes in front of the camera, sometimes layered that would barely obscure your view...with the actors barely out of focus.  But once the wind moved the drapes and the characters could be seen with pure clarity, I had to wonder if this effect was done to mimic how the characters, and the audience to a degree, weren't seeing what exactly was happening.

The fight sequences are few, but very well done.  Apparently Hou only really shoots a scene once, wanting to keep things as real as possible...even if a little bit flawed.  I didn't see any real flaws in the fights, so great work to Hou and his actors.

Overall, I really enjoyed the movie.  Probably more so for how well Hou and his team shot the film than the story, but I would watch again and pay more attention to the plot. As we are given a voting slip after each film with scores between 1 and 10, I gave this film a 6 out of 10.  The first film is hard, you don't have a reference to what else can be seen.

The Assassin - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3508840/