#the assassin 2015

[viragone]

SHU QI as NIE YINNIANG in 刺客聂隐娘 | THE ASSASSIN (2015)

[nine-frames]

"The way of the sword is pitiless. Saintly virtues play no part in it."

刺客聶隱娘 (The Assassin), 2015.

Dir. Hou Hsiao-hsien | Writ. Hou Hsiao-hsien, Chu T’ien-wen, Hsieh Hai-Meng & Ah Cheng | DOP Mark Lee Ping Bin

[madeleineengland]

The Assassin (2015) is a wuxia drama in aspect ratio 1.85.

"It was like being transported into a Chinese classical painting."

[theartofmoviestills]

The Assassin | Hou Hsiao-Hsien | 2015

[theartofmoviestills]

The Assassin | Hou Hsiao-Hsien | 2015

[blinkbones]

The Assassin (2015)

So… I’ve been thinking about this movie a lot since I saw it almost two [four?] weeks ago. I went into it expecting a regular action movie. So, uh… not quite that at all, is it. One thing’s for sure, it’s that it’s a movie that does not hand out many keys for comprehension. It is very quiet, and its emotions tend to be restrained. So yes, I really struggled to parse it out (not helped by my difficulties with recognizing faces).

Let’s start again, with the obvious quality of the movie: it is very beautiful, visually and sonically. Its slow pacing really lets you soak in each scene, and they’re all worth it in my opinion. Idk how to put it… it’s almost meditative, like being outside yourself (IRL touching grass iykyk) watching a barely-changing scenery for a little while. You have time to contemplate, and I think doing so is half the fun in this movie.

The rest, for me, was the puzzle of trying to comprehend the plot and what the director was going for. I was watching with company, so we compared notes.

My final answer, if I had to give one, is that I think the viewer is made to see through the assassin’s eyes, and somewhat become her. The story of the blue bird seeing its reflection in the mirror and entering its final showdown was a prelude for Yinniang having her court clothing put on by servants; the way she stands still and silent, in front of the camera, made me think that she was looking at her reflection – which in turn, makes me think that in that moment, I (or the viewer), was the reflection. This impression was reinforced by the multiple shots of scenes seen through transparent silk draperies. I thought they felt like Yinniang’s stealthy watch over her marks. Her silence, and the movie’s silence, then, begin to make sense to me: it’s where the assassin lives. A world of wordlessness and unspoken analyses and deductions about the situation(s) she’s in. Then of course, being the pawn of a higher power, it also speaks to her own lack of information. Who’s the rival killer in the purple clothes? Evidently an adversary, but as far as we could tell, no one that Yinniang knew much about either. Still, we (and she) recognize her as her equal, which I interpreted as the reason for her being spared. Probably both in respect of her fighting ability and out of compassion for a fellow instrumentalized human, mercy made sense.

This movie is still a puzzle to me. I do not mind.

[blinkbones]

The Assassin (2015) Hou Hsiao-hsien

[thebutcher-5]

The Assassin (2015)

Ed eccoci tornati a una nuova recensione. Una cosa che ho notato nell’ultimo periodo è che nel blog non ho quasi mai parlato di nessun film dell’estremo oriente. Ed è un peccato visto c…