The Assassin | Les Films de Cannes à Bucarest 2015

The Assassin (Nie Yinniang)

Award for Best Director, 2015

Directed by: HOU Hsiao-Hsien
Country:TAIWAN, CHINA, HONG KONG, FRANCE
Year:2015
Duration:104.00 minutes

9th century China. 10-year-old general’s daughter Nie Yinniang is abducted by a nun who initiates her into the martial arts, transforming her into an exceptional assassin charged with eliminating cruel and corrupt local governors. One day, having failed in a task, she is sent back by her mistress to the land of her birth, with orders to kill the man to whom she was promised – a cousin who now leads the largest military region in North China. After 13 years of exile, the young woman must confront her parents, her memories and her long-repressed feelings.
A slave to the orders of her mistress, Nie Yinniang must choose: sacrifice the man she loves or break forever with the sacred way of the righteous assassins.

Credits:

HOU Hsiao-Hsien – Director
HOU Hsiao-Hsien – Script / Dialogue
CHU Tien-Wen – Script / Dialogue
Mark LEE PING BING – Director of Photography
LIAO Ching-Sung – Film Editor
HUANG Chih-Chia – Film Editor
LIM Giong – Music
HWARNG Wern-Ying – Set decorator
TU Duu-Chih – Sound

Actors:

SHU Qi – Nie Yinniang
CHANG Chen – Tian Ji’an, the governor of Weibo
ZHOU Yun – Lady Tian
TSUMABUKI Satoshi – The mirror polisher
JUAN Ching-tian – Xia Jing, the aide-de-camp
HSIEH Hsin-ying – Huji, Tian Ji’an’s concubine
SHEU Fang-yi – Princess Jiacheng and the Princess-nun Jiaxin