Visually it is arguably the best of 2016.
The Assassin
Grade: A-
Director: Hsiao-Hsein Hou (Flight of the Red Balloon)
Screenplay: Cheng Ah et al.
Cast: Qi Shu, Chen Chang
Rating: NR
Runtime: 105 min.
by John DeSando
Nie Yinniang (Qi Shu) goes on a perilous journey in seventh century China to assassinate a political leader in an outlying but rebellious province. If you accept that territory to be allegorically Taiwan and the mainland as the imperial court, then this wildly impressionistic film by acclaimed director Hsiao-Hsein Hou makes sense.
Taken at face value, however as a thrilling adventure, The Assassin is a complicated plot not helped by a painterly landscape. Beyond that personal criticism, the film may have the best cinematography of the year and for all time.
The Chinese landscapes are prominently featured in almost every scene either as long introductory takes or lush backgrounds. The director frames each shot as if her were Turner caring only for that impression. In any case, the allegory need not apply to the landscape, which represents the beauty and inscrutability of Nature and Mankind.
Surely The Assassin is at the top of the cinematography heap for 2015; its plot about a wily female assassin seems secondary to the visual tour de force.
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts WCBE’s It’s Movie Time and co-hosts Cinema Classics. Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.rr.com
