☆ ☆ ☆ ½
The
Assassin (2015) – H.-H. Hou
Absolutely beautiful to look at, with an
impressively subtle use of colour (layered gauzy overlays on images shot
through fabric), the film takes place in 8th century China with
lavish costumes and settings of that era.
The plot, however, is rather difficult to follow. A young assassin (Qi Shu) is sent back to the
province of her youth in order to kill a rebellious lord, who turns out to be her
originally destined husband, until she was betrayed and sent away – to study to
be an assassin with a fearsome nun. At
least that is what I think was going on.
But regardless, the movie can be enjoyed purely as a visual artwork (it
is far too slow to be an action film, with little actual fighting). Director Hsiao-Hsien Hou from Taiwan won the
Best Director Prize at Canne but, apart from its majestic visuals, this
probably isn’t his best film. I haven’t
seen them in ages but I really enjoyed The Puppetmaster (1993) and A Time to
Live and A Time to Die (1985); his more recent films, perhaps not as much,
though there are many I’ve not seen. He
has been making films very infrequently now so this may be his last.
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