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The Assassin's thrilling visuals mark a fresh highlight for director Hsiao-hsien Hou, even if its glacial pace may keep some viewers at arm's length.
All Critics (119) | Top Critics (25) | Fresh (96) | Rotten (23) | DVD (1)
"The Assassin" is gorgeous to look at, but not all that compelling to watch. Jan 15, 2016 | Rating: C | Full Review…
"The Assassin" is gorgeous to look at, but not all that compelling to watch.
Adam Graham
It's so lovely, from the brocade draped interiors to the mist moving over a landscape in the half light, like a series of confounding paintings placed end to end. Nov 10, 2015
It's so lovely, from the brocade draped interiors to the mist moving over a landscape in the half light, like a series of confounding paintings placed end to end.
Alison Willmore
The visuals relegate the acting to secondary importance. They overwhelm the story. And they make "The Assassin" unforgettable. Nov 5, 2015 | Rating: 3/4 | Full Review…
The visuals relegate the acting to secondary importance. They overwhelm the story. And they make "The Assassin" unforgettable.
Soren Andersen
One hallmark of a good action director is the ability to make stillness and silence as dramatic as movement and noise. The Assassin, directed by Taiwan's Hou Hsiao-hsien, carries this principle as far as it can go. Nov 5, 2015 | Rating: 4.5/5 | Full Review…
One hallmark of a good action director is the ability to make stillness and silence as dramatic as movement and noise. The Assassin, directed by Taiwan's Hou Hsiao-hsien, carries this principle as far as it can go.
Jake Wilson
Part of the problem is Hou's style works at odds with the material. Nov 2, 2015 | Rating: 1/4 | Full Review…
Part of the problem is Hou's style works at odds with the material.
G. Allen Johnson
The Assassin is like some stereotypical beauty - gorgeous, but frustratingly incapable of prolonged conversation. Oct 30, 2015 | Rating: 2/4 | Full Review…
The Assassin is like some stereotypical beauty - gorgeous, but frustratingly incapable of prolonged conversation.
Kate Taylor
The Assassin packs nearly every kind of arty, intersectional-feminist fan's fantasy into one movie. Mar 7, 2019 | Full Review…
The Assassin packs nearly every kind of arty, intersectional-feminist fan's fantasy into one movie.
Ren Jender
Sweeping, gorgeous, and head-scratchingly inaccessible, The Assassin is a challenging watch that asks much of its audience. Feb 2, 2019 | Full Review…
Sweeping, gorgeous, and head-scratchingly inaccessible, The Assassin is a challenging watch that asks much of its audience.
Ed Travis
The Assassin" is a gorgeous film, artfully structured, that bares however, little semblance to the wuxia genre, apart from the era it takes place. Nov 3, 2018 | Full Review…
The Assassin" is a gorgeous film, artfully structured, that bares however, little semblance to the wuxia genre, apart from the era it takes place.
Panos Kotzathanasis
Much like Wong with The Grandmaster, Hou has made a martial arts film that is more of a personal statement than a genre piece, but his style suits the genre surprisingly well and certainly makes its mark in martial arts cinema. Oct 29, 2018 | Full Review…
Much like Wong with The Grandmaster, Hou has made a martial arts film that is more of a personal statement than a genre piece, but his style suits the genre surprisingly well and certainly makes its mark in martial arts cinema.
Harris Dang
You're not likely to see a better film this year. Feb 12, 2018 | Full Review…
You're not likely to see a better film this year.
Steve Erickson
The pictorial beauty of this scene is self-evident; it's in Hou's painstaking orchestration of each component part and the thematic weight imparted by their careful configuration that lends the film a steadily increasing romantic gravitas. Nov 10, 2017 | Full Review…
The pictorial beauty of this scene is self-evident; it's in Hou's painstaking orchestration of each component part and the thematic weight imparted by their careful configuration that lends the film a steadily increasing romantic gravitas.
Jordan Cronk
A stunning film with gorgeous visuals and a splendid sound design, but also way too measured and cryptic in its narrative, edited in a way that makes it feel like a frustrating puzzle that lacks important information and doesn't justify any effort to try to understand it.
Super Reviewer
Yes the plot is mostly indecipherable but at a certain point you stop caring as I don't believe your supposed to be all that invested in the story. What matters are the visual and auditory elements . . . the gorgeous cinematography, the panoramic backgrounds, and the way the sounds of nature seem to hijack every scene.
Although the cinematography is lush and the locations grandiose, THE ASSASSIN establishes a steady pace that prefers stillness over action as well as a storytelling method that executes through staccato bursts amidst a domineering and overarching insistence on patience. Both the performances and fight scenes are muted yet beautiful to observe, but the film ultimately results in well-crafted parts that make up a frustrating whole in which the end feeling is empty rather than profound and a whimper rather than a bang. Simply, it is visually stimulating but emotionally flat.
'The Assassin' is not your typical 'Wuxia' martial arts epic, it is however an incredibly intelligent and beautifully shot film that relies more on audience perception than the existential expositions and purely on the characters at play. Then after seeing this once I felt I really needed to see it again, not just for it's luscious and outstanding cinematography, but for what's the hidden message so caught up in the drama and conflict at play within its historical setting. Aside from having both inner and surface quality, while it's slow moving at times, the action and fighting is pretty awesome. I urge viewers to come to this film with an open mind and not have expectations for a non-stop all out action flick, for one it out-ranks the most underwhelming or cheesiest Wuxia martial arts epics and would most certainly make viewers think a lot more about what they observe from a film such as this.
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