• Two elements make this one of 2015’s best films— the wall-art photography exterior establishing shots (this is actually new for HHH after 3+ decades of making films) and the interior use of silk curtains to produce his trademark layered Ozu-like mise-en-scenes
one of the elements that make this one of 2015’s best films— the wall-art photography exterior establishing shots (this is actually new for HHH after 3+ decades of making films)
  • Won best director at Cannes here
  • Boxy aspect ratio, b/w prologue and then we’re off and running in the luminous 35mm color photography, frequent DP Mark Lee Ping Bing
  • HHH holds the transitions for an extra pause on the fade to black ellipsis editing—this and the unique (slow, pensive, poised, auteur-driven) take on genre cinema makes me think of Jarmusch- particularly genre films like Dead Man, Ghost Dog, and The Limits of Control
  • HHH’s trademark long takes, mostly static camera, medium shots (or at least lack of close-ups)
  • The billowing curtains in the wind—stunning set and production design—plus you them often obstructing the frame and creating another frame within the frame. There are a 5-10 stunning sets where he really sets the frame. This is less than like Café Lumiere but still more than almost any other film out there. Candles, Flowers, shots through fabric a reoccurring visual motif –
The billowing curtains in the wind—stunning set and production design—plus you them often obstructing the frame and creating another frame within the frame
  • HHH first genre (action or wuxia—period martial arts- Hong Kong genre) film like this—but it has his trademark narrative themes like the effects of a broken family and the effects of foreign occupation
  • Unlike Yimou Zhang or Crouching Tiger this isn’t an action film—I mean there is action but it’s clear that HHH doesn’t have a ton of interest there (similar to Jarmusch when he works in this genre)
  • The images on the page speak for themselves. But this isn’t a masterpiece because 1. There aren’t that many of them even in the 105 minute running time 2. Unlike Ozu (yes that’s a tough comparison for anyone) he doesn’t hold on his masterful mise-en-scene set ups (I’m not sure why) and 3. He doesn’t create a rhythm with the editing like Ozu. 4. Many of the longer scenes here in The Assassin hold on scenes that aren’t that interesting
  • That narrative is opaque but I like this- RogerEbert.com – Peter Sobczynski “Conventional and easy-to-follow narratives can be found anywhere, but very few of them occur in films that are as visually ravishing and formally graceful as what Hou has cooked up here.”
  • A great shot at 41 minutes—voyeur looking through multiple curtains eavesdropping on cousin  
A great shot at 41 minutes—voyeur looking through multiple curtains eavesdropping on cousin  
  • natural lighting often bouncing off the camera to become an important part of the artistic mise-en-scene makeup
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natural lighting often bouncing off the camera to become an important part of the artistic mise-en-scene makeup
  • Third collaboration between HHH and Qi Shu (Three Times, Millennium Mambo)
  • First film for HHH since 2007’s Flight of the Red Balloon
  • A art on the wall stunner 44 minutes in—it’s Ozu— there are apples in the frame, fourth levels of depth with the curtains acting as the stand-in for the Ozu shoji doors
  • Another jaw-dropper 47 minutes in—which reminds you a little that this starts slow
  • Perhaps the film’s greatest image (and that’s saying something— captured here) is the gorgeous establishing shot of the fog floating in a lake with trees both in the background and reflecting off the water
Perhaps the film’s greatest image (and that’s saying something— captured here) is the gorgeous establishing shot of the fog floating in a lake with trees both in the background and reflecting off the water
  • The battle in the white trees is genius as well
The battle in the white trees is genius as well
  • Yet another breathtaking use of framing at 87 minutes through the curtains with the flower in the vase on the right
  • Strong work from Robbie Collin “Silk curtains flutter and fall, candles glow, fires crackle softly in the grate. Every scene, every shot, has been composed with total, Kubrickian precision, and calibrated for maximum, breath-quickening impact.” And my guy Justin Chang—continually one of the best –  “A mesmerizing slow burn of a martial-arts movie that boldly merges stasis and kinesis, turns momentum into abstraction, and achieves breathtaking new heights of compositional elegance: Shot for shot, it’s perhaps the most ravishingly beautiful film Hou has ever made, and certainly one of his most deeply transporting.”
  • Highly Recommend/Must-See border