The Assassin (2015)

Plot summary (story synopsis): It is China during the Tang Dynasty. Young assassin Yinniang (Shu Qi) doesn't have the heart to kill a target in front of his son. To teach her a lesson, she is sent back to her home province of Weibo to assassinate her cousin Tian Ji'an (Chen Chang) who is now the Lord of Weibo.

Tian Ji-an's court is already in turmoil. There is disagreement over how to handle their relationship with the distant Tang Dynasty. There is also some political intrigue within the court.

***

The Assassin is an arthouse movie. Don't expect anything like Hero or House of Flying Daggers. It won the Best Director prize at Cannes for director Hsiao-hsien Hou.

There's lots of show-don't-tell, so the pace will be slow for some audiences. Fights are few, fast, short, and realistic. Shu Qi isn't made into some kind of superhero, just a skilled fighter.

There are long takes and few close-ups. Many scenes are shot with a single wide-angle take. This is Kurosawa style.

Standard editing advice is to enter the scene late and get out early. Keep scenes short, don't bore the audience. The Assassin does the opposite. Combined with the wide-angle long takes, this gives an effective voyeuristic feel to the movie. You feel like an observer watching from a distance, not some omniscient god floating everywhere like in conventional movies with their close-ups, quick cuts and dolly moves.

The director's voyeuristic intention is confirmed in some indoor scenes. The camera is positioned behind thin veil-like curtains, so the audience feels like they are hiding from the people in the scene.

So this movie is not for everyone. There are reports of some audience members walking out during the screenings at Cannes and at the Toronto International Film Festival.

While the unconventional camerawork is effective to a certain extent, it's also distracting. We are used to today's camerawork and done well, it is invisible to the audience. The Assassin's minimalist camerawork calls attention to itself, throwing the audience out of the movie.

There is high contrast in some scenes - bits of sunlight in a dim interior. This would be considered a mistake in an amateur movie.

Another quirk: the movie is shot in 4:3 aspect ratio, the old PAL and NTSC analog TV format. The decision to not use 16:9, 2.4:1 or some other widescreen format is especially perverse considering the gorgeous scenery in some of the shots.

Perennially youthful Shu Qi plays the twenty-something Yinniang well. But we don't see much of Shu Qi. She's on screen maybe 25% to 50% of the time, and usually not in close-up.

The plot is interesting enough but there are too many characters and the various subplots are difficult to follow (who is the lady who tried to hide her pregnancy? I had to look her up after I watched the movie). The thing with the lady in the gold mask? Very Pink Pantherish - Clouseau versus Cato.

The Assassin gets an A for effort but overall it could have been better.