Directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien • 2015 • Taiwan, China, Hong Kong
Starring Shu Qi, Chang Chen, Zhou Yun

The last film to date by Taiwanese master Hou Hsiao-hsien is a wondrous take on the traditional wuxia film that earned him the Best Director prize at Cannes. The story is simple, if elusive: in ninth-century China, Nie Yinniang (Shu Qi) is a young woman who was abducted in childhood from a decorated general and raised by a nun who trained her in martial arts. After thirteen years of exile, she is returned to the land of her birth as an exceptional assassin, with orders to kill her husband-to-be (Chang Chen). Now, she must confront her parents, her memories, and her long-repressed feelings and choose whether to sacrifice the man she loves or break forever with the sacred way of the righteous assassins. Rich with shimmering, breathing texture and punctuated by brief but unforgettable bursts of action, THE ASSASSIN is a martial-arts film like no other.