The Assassin (Hou Hsiao-hsien, 2015)

[Trees]

I think of all the films I have seen in the last decade or so, THE ASSASSIN is the one where the sound design and score were the most crucial. The wind, the the birds, the drums -- all helped to hypnotize or mesmerize me as a viewer. I have seen the pacing of this film described as "glacial", but for me, it was just the opposite. I was gripped throughout the film. The drums in particular were used so expertly to build tension.

[Luke M]

Interview with Hou in Filmmaker Magazine on The Assassin. Much of it covers historical context (including the period-accurate use of language) that may be missed by newer viewers of his work.

Fantastic read. I finished watching this film tonight and came here to read reaction to it. This interview significantly complemented the experience and now hope to see it again soon. When Hou is asked about editing, he says, "I tried to preserve the long take as much as I could, and I would only edit if it would clarify certain things..." I thought this was the real strength of the film. There were moments where the film would either be incredibly vague or simply skip over the typical cues to the audience. I fell in love with this style right away but it seemed like this choice came in direct conflict with the narrative. I do agree with david hare where the exposition dialogue appears to exist in a separate movie. So much so, it felt like Hou had a kind of disdain for the dialogue heavy scenes as well as the action scenes. This is less a criticism of those scenes and more of a praise for everything else. The mundanity, as YnEoS writes, "the every day life of a character in a wuxia film" is where the film is at its most comfortable and competent.

Gorgeous film. Easily one of my favorites of the year.

[AK]

I think of all the films I have seen in the last decade or so, THE ASSASSIN is the one where the sound design and score were the most crucial. The wind, the the birds, the drums -- all helped to hypnotize or mesmerize me as a viewer. I have seen the pacing of this film described as "glacial", but for me, it was just the opposite. I was gripped throughout the film. The drums in particular were used so expertly to build tension.

Well said! The sound design is utterly captivating, and the minimalism of the music, be it percussion, strings or flute, permeates everything we see. The effect is hypnotizing. There might be "silence" in the film, but it actually speaks volumes. I think the dialogue itself is used to similar effect, as sound dancing with the image.

When Hou is asked about editing, he says, "I tried to preserve the long take as much as I could, and I would only edit if it would clarify certain things..." I thought this was the real strength of the film. There were moments where the film would either be incredibly vague or simply skip over the typical cues to the audience. I fell in love with this style right away but it seemed like this choice came in direct conflict with the narrative. I do agree with david hare where the exposition dialogue appears to exist in a separate movie. So much so, it felt like Hou had a kind of disdain for the dialogue heavy scenes as well as the action scenes. This is less a criticism of those scenes and more of a praise for everything else. The mundanity, as YnEoS writes, "the every day life of a character in a wuxia film" is where the film is at its most comfortable and competent.

Gorgeous film. Easily one of my favorites of the year.

Good points there. The apparent dichotomy between [1] the visual narrative of what is seen and [2] what goes on plot-wise is one of the reasons why I was so spellbound, however. The film has immense energy underneath the calm surface, which I think Hou expertly uses to channel into the inner, emotional world of the characters. But I don't really agree with the idea that this contrast of action/dialogue vs. visual meditation means that either one is any lesser for it; on the contrary, I think they're used like the counterpoint in music, not competing against each other but enabling the other, emphasizing each others' strengths.

[repeat]

In the Film Comment interview, Hou explains that the mesmerising "drums at night" sound design actually also has to do with historical detail:

I tried to close in on some key details of daily life, and then zoom out to a wider canvas. For example, I learned that at dawn and dusk, the sound of the beating of drums would fill the streets. According to Tang custom, 3,000 drumbeats would sound from the imperial quarters. Every li [the unit in which distance was measured at the time], there is another drum that starts to beat, until everyone knew it was time to get up. This signified the beginning of a day. When it got dark, the drums would beat 500 times. This meant curfew time, when people had to stay confined to within one li of their living quarters. You can learn all this by reading the wuxia novels carefully. Beneath all the mystical or fantastic elements, you will find traces of daily minutiae, which help you understand the limits that defined life back then—how each day was bookended.

[Michael Kerpan]

> The film has immense energy underneath the calm surface

This is true about all Hou's (post-musical-esque) films, I think. This is why they require vastly more attention than the "average film".

[Trees]

I agree about the "immense energy" under the surface. To me the drums are so emblematic of the expertise and thought used to make this film. I was not aware of that historical inspiration for the drums. Hou was a genius for how they were used, which, for me, served to build tension and anticipation for what was to come, often employed just before key scenes of confrontation or violence. The silk drapes were another stroke of genius, serving as an emblem of opaque morality, love and sense of duty.

On the surface, the film is paced very slowly, but if you are paying attention and if you allow yourself to be drawn into the picture, there is tremendous tension and force flowing like an undercurrent throughout the film, driving it quietly but powerfully. Shu Qi is sent to kill someone she once loved, or probably still loves. That is a recipe for huge tension and drama, which Hou plays brilliantly.

When you add all the elements up -- the sound design, the cinematography, the art design, the acting, the landscapes, the costumes, the story -- one word really comes to my mind: Magnificent.

By the way, on a fun note, I highly encourage you guys to go and read all of the 1-star reviews for THE ASSASSIN on IMDB.

[Trees]

Some potential SPOILERS in my post.

Spoiler

One question I have about the story. When Shu Qi's character fights Lady Tian/aka "Jing Jing’er", why does she not kill her? This person is the cause of great trouble in Weibo.

Here is what Hou says about the character:

In one scene, Nie Yinniang fights another lady assassin with a golden mask. That character appears twice. Can you tell us who she really is? The credit shows she was played by Zhou Yun, who also plays Tian’s wife. What’s the relationship between the wife and this lady assassin?

Hou: The character’s name is Jing Jing’er. She and Kong Kong’er, the wizard with the white beard, were kung fu masters in the original story. But Jing and the wife were two different characters in the story. In the film, I wanted to show the fact that the Yuan family married their daughter to the Tian family in order to seize power in Weibo, so the wife was actually a matchless assassin too. Only when something happened, when she felt any threat, she would put on her mask and become an assassin. So in the film, the wife is the lady assassin. Actually, Tian knew about this, too—just nobody talked about it.

http://www.filmcomment.com/blog/intervi ... hang-chen/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[gorgeousnothings]

Spoiler

I assume for the same reason she doesn't kill the priestess at the end, and I think the correct answer depends on how you view Yinniang's emotional development and what position she decides to take as an assassin at the end of the film. I've only seen it twice and that is not enough for me to fully understand this film, but to me it seems that she holds more honor in mercy than she does in killing, and that killing her way through pain or through problems won't solve anything. She's powerful as an assassin, but she isn't cut out for it. I think Lady Tian's pain, or at least the motivation she has for coming after Yinniang, can obviously been seen as temporary and as a restlessness against Yinniang's presence. Once Yinniang cuts her mask, Tian knows that she is outmatched and walks away. I'm not convinced that Yinniang has any political motivation in this scene, or in any scenes, which is why she doesn't kill her. This scene occurs relatively late in the movie, and I think the seeds of the idea of leaving has already been planted in Yinniang's mind. She isn't here to take back what was hers, just to gain closure. She isn't interested in affecting the politics of Weibo, only to find a method of living that is truly hers, and not the priestess', and not Weibo's. I think that is why she returns to the mirror maker at the end, because she has found her own method of honor.

But again, I need to see this a third time. I may be mis-remembering the order of scenes here. Has the pregnant lady been attacked yet? If so, and Yinniang has told Tian Ji'an that she is pregnant, than I think that solves that particular problem of Lady Tian for Yinniang, and leaves it up to Tian Ji'an to distribute punishment and protection.

[Trees]

I guess I am going to dispense with the SPOILER tags at this point, since I have seen the film about 5 times myself and still don't understand it completely, so I don't think this kind of minute discussion would really effect anyone who has not seen it. To clarify, during the confrontation with Lady Tian in the trees, Yinniang has not yet revealed the pregnancy of Huji.

gorgeousnothings, I think you are probably correct in your assessment that Yinniang was already well on her way to renouncing the way of the sword by the time she met Lady Tian in combat, but I do think Yinniang has at least some interest in the political fate of Weibo. Lady Tian is causing potentially massive trouble in Weibo, and is perhaps an agent of the Court. Yinniang might have done a favor for Weibo by dispatching Lady Tian, but then again, who knows what the real, long-term consequences of striking her down might have been. Certainly, by the time Yinniang leaves Weibo, having tipped off Lord Tian about Lady Tian's treachery, Lady Tian will be under great scrutiny moving forward.

[Trees]

'The Assassin' Named Best Foreign Language Film at Palm Springs Film Festival

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/p ... ers-853628" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[tenia]

I watched the movie last evening, and while it's tremendously beautiful (despite the milky blacks on the BD which seems simply capped, forcing me to watch the movie in RGB Full), it also seemed to me extremely hollow. The palm most likely goes to this neverending sequence about 30 min in which follows the discussion of a couple, filmed almost entirely through a veiled curtain (because why not Zoidberg ?) and which lasts about 25 min, but actually there only is about 15 lines of dialog all in all in it (and I probably am quite close to the truth though I haven't counted them).

I've also been quite annoyed by the score which tends to be really an annoyance more than anything because of the endless slow-paced drum that keeps drumming something like 75% of the movie. It is mixed in a way that makes it sounds like a background noise to a point I thought it was a glitch in the BD sound mix (it's not).

Finally, the few action sequences are nicely choregraphed but not very well edited. The one at night on the roof, especially, has very obvious cuts, most likely to hide the beginning and/or the end of the shooting rushes, which makes it quite fake-looking.

I've noticed Japan has a cut 3 min longer than the rest of the world. I watched the additional sequence before watching the movie. With hindsight, I should have guessed what I was in for based on it (it mostly consists of an outdoor dance sequence without any dialog, in a setup reminding me the beginning of Kurosawa's Ran).

I read this about the movie and it's very close to what I felt after watching The Assassin :
"The silence in this film is meant to be tranquil and contemplative, I think, but an engine can only run on fumes for so long."


It's funny, because I started watching Rivette's Out 1, and the first episode also has close to nothing to offer in terms of narrative content, but I can understand that because Rivette can experiment with pacing unlike regular movies because Out 1 is 13 hrs long. The Assassin actually does that (the ceremony preparation, the "dialogs" through the veiled curtain), but it reaches its end, you're not sure if it should have been much shorter or much longer.
When I read all the elements that are still present but were only properly introduced or explained in past versions of the script, it's hard for me not to think that the movie has been cut without a lot of care for these things, like if the movie team thought "that's OK, nobody will care because hey ! it'll be gorgeous, so they'll all say it's meditative or stuff".


In the end, I don't quite know what to do with it, because it was one of my highest expectations from the Cannes roster. I tend to enjoy relatively slow-paced / contemplative movie, but what a letdown for me for this one. I can only take so much of an endless dialog-without-dialog sequence shot through a veiled curtain.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

I've also been quite annoyed by the score which tends to be really an annoyance more than anything because of the endless slow-paced drum that keeps drumming something like 75% of the movie. It is mixed in a way that makes it sounds like a background noise to a point I thought it was a glitch in the BD sound mix (it's not).

It is a background noise. Drums were used to keep the population apprised of the time, like a bell in a mechanical clock tower. Official drum towers (which survive as historical landmarks in many Chinese cities) marked the beginning and end of the nightly curfew, while "unofficial" drums (e.g. in temples) marked the passage of hours during the day. To give you an idea of how omnipresent the drumming could be, the beginning of the nightly curfew in the Tang capital of Chang'an was announced by eight hundred drumbeats, which were echoed throughout the city by a relay system.

Edit: Looking up a bit I see that this was mentioned a month or so ago by repeat, quoting an interview with Hou himself—though he says it was a mere five hundred drumbeats instead of eight.

[tenia]

Thanks for the input ! It is something I clearly didn't know before now (and I missed the discussion about it here). I now thus wish the movie was "less realistic" regarding that point.

[Trees]

Great little interview with BBC. Excerpt:

Surprisingly, protagonist Yinniang only has nine lines for the entire movie and the lack of wire action kung fu - the most common element in Chinese martial arts films - got people talking.

"I don't know what to do with wire action scenes," said Hou, explaining his decision to go back to basics.

"People flying back and forth in the air... that needs to be done well, and you can't do any better than Superman. So I'm being realistic and used gravity - this requires that the actions be very solid."

Hou says large parts of the film were edited out in the end, leaving gaps that require viewers to work out the plot for themselves.
The director admits the decision might lead to confusion for Chinese audiences, let alone Western ones.

"It could be even more difficult for foreign audiences, but a film is a film - it doesn't matter. It's up to one's own feelings. If there are too many gaps, it would be hard to get a general release; if there aren't enough gaps, I'd feel it's too clear," he explains.

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-35381852" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Trees]

Another interesting interview. Excerpt:

You frequently subordinate the story to evoking the atmosphere of places, while distancing yourself from incidents through your familiar use of long shots. And since there are gaps in the narrative, the characters’ identities, and their relationships to each other, aren’t always clear. Does it bother you that Western viewers in particular might not appreciate this distanced, elliptical way of telling a story?

HHH: When I’m on set, or working outdoors in a specific place, capturing the mood is the most important thing to me. I like using the long shot rather than shooting a scene from different angles or from closer in. Hollywood does the best kinds of movies like that because it has the resources for it, including the actors. In Asia, there are limitations on the kinds of actors I want to work with. Anyway, there are other ways to tell a story. Telling a story in a more straightforward way doesn’t feel right to me, and because of the rules I have for myself, I’m not sure that if I was given the opportunity to make such a film that I could even do it. If Western viewers maybe do not appreciate the way I feel I have to make a film, that’s their prerogative.

http://www.theartsdesk.com/china/theart ... siao-hsien" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[barryconvex]

sorry to say it but i've never been more baffled by a motion picture than this one. to the point i was so hopelessly lost i had to turn it off. not saying it's bad, it might even be great-at the very least it's gorgeous to look at but other than the title character and some of her motivations i didn't have a clue who anybody else was or what was happening to them and why. i don't think i've seen anything else by Hou. can anybody steer me in a different direction? he's clearly a director of note that i'd like to acquaint myself with...

[feihong]

The Boys From Fengkuei and Summer at Grandpa's are really good films, to my mind. I haven't seen The Assassin, but those are pretty accessible films, I think.

[copen]

I think you have to have a predisposition to asian cinema (and more specifically to asian movies that are set in past centuries) to enjoy this. I checked out after about 5 minutes of the curtain scene.

[Michael Kerpan]

barryconvex -- I felt somewhat the same when I first encountered Hou (Goodby South Goodbye), but it was the visual beauty of certain scenes (trains gliding right through the center of villages, for example) that caused me to give the film another chance. I'm glad I did, because Hou soon became one of my contemporary favorites.

I agree that Boys from Fengkuei might be a good re-starting point.

[bdsweeney]

I have very limited experience with Hou (only The Assassin, Goodbye South ... and Millennium Mambo), but I can recommend Millennium Mambo as a fairly accessible film.

[Trees]

"Millennium Mambo" and "A Time to Live, A Time do Die" are probably good warm-ups for "The Assassin".

I wish Criterion was able to do a Blu-ray for "Millennium Mambo". It's a gem, with one of the best opening shots ever.

[Michael Kerpan]

Millennium Mambo is my personal favorite, but I think Boys (Hou's first great film) is simpler for a HHH-beginner to follow.

[Trees]

Blu-ray for THE ASSASSIN is now shipping from Amazon for those who've not seen it.

[mfunk9786]

Blu-ray for THE ASSASSIN is now shipping from Amazon for those who've not seen it.

I am of two minds on this film:

Mind #1) Trees has actually stoked my interest in a way that I probably shouldn't openly give him credit for, for fear of the fandom exponentially increasing - his enthusiasm for it is infectious enough for me to have sought out more information on it and I am genuinely curious to see it
Mind #2) I don't want to give Trees the satisfaction

[Trees]

You are gonna love it, mfunk.