Film Fest Review: “The Assassin”

— by Paula Treneer —

OIFF Film Review: “The Assassin” directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien:

Orcas Island Film Fest continues Sunday and Monday at Random Howse, Sea View Theater and Orcas Center

A well-attended first evening film at the 2015 Orcas Film Festival was “The Assassin”, directed by award-winning Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien, who won the Best Director prize at Cannes earlier this year for this effort.

Stunningly beautiful landscape photography and colorful period costumes combine with an intricate plot and acrobatic-balletic martial arts sequences in this martial arts film set in 9th century China.

The story features Yinniang, a mysterious presence in the film (Shu Qi) whose childhood education by a princess-nun (only in ancient China!) created an assassin of incomparable skill, as depicted in the early sequences of the film. The intricate plot revolves around 9th century China’s Tang dynasty’s struggles with the independent province of Weibo and its rebellious overlords. After failing to assassinate a governor while his son was within eyeshot, Yinniang is ordered to return home to Weibo to kill her cousin, Lord Tian (Chang Cheng), to whom she was once engaged, which allows the action to continue within lavishly-decorated interiors juxtaposed with the film’s many exquisite landscapes, and interspersed with beautiful martial arts choreography for the fight scenes.

Unlike most films of this genre, the martial arts sequences seem incidental to the plot, which is revealed slowly, with the expressive stances, gestures and facial expressions of the actors seeming to provide most of the film’s action, not surprisingly for a film which is supposed to be based on a ninth century Chinese tale. This film may disappoint devotees of the Chinese/Taiwanese/Korean martial arts genre, but its literary roots and stunning cinematography more than made up for the slow pacing and intricate plotting.

(For more information and tickets, go to www.orcasfilmfest.org )