The Assassin

The Reluctant Killer

The Assassin
aka Cike nie yin niang
Directed by Hsiao-Hsien Hou
Taiwan/Hong Kong/China 2015 
Studio Canal 
Blu Ray Zone B

Hmm... The Assassin is a somewhat troublesome film for me to review and, therefore, this will probably be an extremely short one. Based on an ancient Chinese novel and set in the 9th Century, this tells the story of Yinniang, as played by Shu Qi (who you may remember from films such as The Transporter) who, at the age of nine, long before the film starts and only told in back story, is left in the care of a nun in order to save her. The nun, played by Fang-yi Sheu, trains her in the art of being an assassin and then lets her loose years later to return to her family and murder her cousin, who is the local governor and who was, when they were little, betrothed to her.

And it would be true to say that, in regards to the matter of her cousin, she is a somewhat reluctant hit woman in regards to him whom, despite him trying to retaliate against her perceived threat numerous times, she often ends up saving from death herself.

And I can’t figure out what this film is about above and beyond that very simple premise. The film is extremely slow (usually not a problem for me and certainly not here) and has very little dialogue in it. Or, rather, that is to say, the dialogue heavy sequences are few and far apart with the action... or lack of it in this case... taking place pretty much wordlessly. 

If this was compared to a play by, for instance, Harold Pinter, then this film would seem to be filled with all of the pauses while forgetting to service the narrative in any practical way throughout. And normally I would say this one is fairly dull and gruelling except... it looks absolutely wonderful. 

Now, in terms of the cinematography... the film does some unusual things. Starting off in roughly a 1.33:1 aspect ratio in very crisp black and white photography. After about eight or so minutes, the film then turns into colour. Then, after a short while, the aspect ratio changes to a 1.85:1 screen size for a few minutes before it once again settles back on the 1.33:1 ratio for the remainder of the film. Why the film goes through these colour and frame size changes is anyone’s guess. I certainly couldn’t find any visual logic in the narrative (what little there is of it) to clue me into why this is occurring. 

Also, don’t go into this expecting a film of violent/balletic fights in the best tradition of an old Shaw Brothers movie either. There are some brief action scenes but they are few and far between and the majority of them are over and done with before you’ve even had time to acknowledge what just happened... so to speak. 

What was more problematic for me was the fact that it took me forever to realise that there is not one but, two assassins hunting in the film and that they weren’t the same person... although I only figured this out towards the end of the picture, when they are suddenly both on the screen at the same time and having a brief fight. So, despite being a simple story, I got discombobulated at some point in terms of what the heck was going on. 

Fortunately it doesn’t matter because the film is just so bold and colourful in its exquisite framing and shot design. I mean, the monotone visuals at the start are eye catching enough but the colour stuff is... to finally use a cliché which I’ve always dismissed... absolutely breathtaking in its visual beauty. And although there is an almost static sense of stillness to the slow camera movements and the muted, reflective personalities of all the characters... the director keeps things lively by using things like constantly blowing wind to, for example, blow a curtain into the foreground of a shot on occasion. Or in one particular scene, taking the shot through the silk of a diaphanous curtain which is gently blowing but, because it’s so close to the camera, imperceptible to it other than it gives the colours a fluctuating muteness which gently transition back onto the saturated colour sense when the wind blows part of it out of the frame. 

So, yeah, normally I might say a film like The Assassin is so slight in content as to be somewhat dull but, in truth, the visual element of the movie more than makes up for it. The story may seem somewhat lacking in content but the frames are filled with wonder. If you are a fan of great cinematography, this is something of a treat and I can understand, somewhat, the accolades showered on this film. Worth a watch if slow beauty is your thing.