The most beautiful film of the year is undoubtedly “The Assassin,” the latest from Taiwanese master Hou Hsiao-Hsien. Filmed in Japan, central China, and Inner Mongolia, the film highlights the director’s foray into the wuxia genre, telling the Tang Dynasty-set story of Nie Yinniang (Shu Qi), who as a child was forcibly handed over to a nun named Jiaxin (Zhou Yun), who trained her to be an assassin. Now years later, Yinniang, after failing to kill a target on instructions from Jiaxin (she sees the target’s young son and suddenly can’t execute), is sent back to Weibo, where she was born, to kill Lord Tian Ji’an (Chang Chen), the governor who is also her cousin.
This only begins to explain the many layers to explore in “The Assassin,” which unfolds quietly, even meditatively, despite its atmosphere of violence — it might be the first film to feature an entire fight sequence from across a lake, about as far away as possible, and still have it be more breathtaking than most quick-cut cinematic assaults. It’s a film that requires, even demands, multiple viewings. The first time you watch you might be too awestruck — each frame is as beautifully composed as a classical painting — to fully piece together what is happening.
While in town for the New York Film Festival, Hou spoke with ARTINFO, via a translator, about the reasons he wanted to make “The Assassin,” his struggle with finding the right backdrop for the film, and his thoughts on continuing to shoot on film.
What was your interest in the wuixa genre and why did you decide at this point in your career to make a wuxia film?
I’ve wanted to do a wuxia film for a long time because throughout my life I’ve read a lot of wuxia short stories. But it wasn’t until college that I started to read the Tang Dynasty story that I adapted for “The Assassin.” If I wasn’t going to do it now I was never going to do it. It has been very difficult in the past to shoot wuxia films because of the scenery, and I couldn’t only shoot it in Taiwan. So in order for me to do this film I needed to shoot in China, and in order to shoot a film in China you need to have everything prepared. That’s why it took a long time to get everything organized.
Could you talk about the research that went into making “The Assassin”?
In terms of research, because the Tang Dynasty short stories are written in a very specific language, you have to be of a certain intelligence to even understand what they are, because some of these stories are only a page but they tell an entire story. Even as a child when I read all these wuxia short stories, it just helped gain an understanding of the Tang Dynasty short stories I read later. So all these stories are a part of me; it’s not really research. The most research came with doing the sets for the film, which was difficult. There were very specific types of structures during that period, and the only place that still had them were Japan, which were built by these monks who went back, during the Tang Dynasty era, to study. But every 20 years they take them down and rebuild them, but always in the same style. So when I went to Japan to look at these places to shoot the film, it happened to be during the time when they were taking down these structures. So we couldn’t use them.
What did you end up doing?
I wanted to build these structures in a studio, and make them with removable walls so they could be used for different purposes. But when I asked a few architects nobody wanted to do it [laughs]. It was too difficult. I ended up building sets in Taiwan, but they were not exactly my original idea, they are more traditional sets. I think Martin Scorsese was using some of the sets when he was shooting in Taiwan recently.
What was the writing process on “The Assassin” like?
I collaborated with two people this time, T'ien-wen Chu, who I’ve worked with before, and her niece, Hai-Meng Hsieh, who is a historian. She added factual elements to the script.
Do you stick closely to the script while you’re shooting?
It depends on the day and what’s happening around us. The discussion is really on plot during the writing. That is the essence of the script. But while we’re shooting, things might change in terms of dialogue. This was always the story I wanted to adapt as my wuixa film. Even though I did a lot of research, this is still my own version of the Tang Dynasty. If I had the ability to go back in time and see what the Tang Dynasty is like it wouldn’t look anything like what we see on screen; the people wouldn’t look anything like what we see on screen. This is my version.
How much of the visual look of the film is pre-planned and how much is figured out in the moment?
I wanted to have natural wind and natural light for every scene. So I set up each scene to be where the natural light would fall. That’s how we decided on where the camera will be in each shot. Mark [Lee Ping Bin, the cinematographer] is so comfortable with the way I work — we’ve been working together since “Flowers of Shanghai” (1998). He just shows up, sets the camera up, we quickly talk about the shot and most of the time we’re in agreement. It’s very fast. There’s not a long process in terms of getting what you see on the screen.
Could you talk about the choice to begin the film with a black-and-white sequence, and the shifting aspect ratios during different scenes?
There was always an idea that before the credits roll, before you even see the title of the film, it would be shot in black-and-white. I wanted to introduce the era and set the stage, but no matter what, it was always going to move to color after the credits. I shot in 1:1:41 aspect ratio, a rectangular frame, which I thought that made the characters look good. It only changes when you see the woman playing the instrument to a [wider] 1:1:85 aspect ratio because the instrument was too big [laughs]. I wanted to fit the instrument in the frame. I thought about switching the frame even more, to make it look like a comic book, which would have been interesting. It just didn’t happen, but I’m thinking about doing it, maybe, on the next film.
Is it important for you to continue to shoot on 35mm?
It’s been eight years since I last put out a film, but it has always been film to me. So if I was going to shoot on digital or any other format I would have to do extensive tests. For “The Assassin,” I didn’t have enough time for that, and for the look of the Tang Dynasty film worked better for the lushness of the scenery. I originally thought of shooting on a 16mm Bolex camera, and I actually brought two of them to shoot with for “The Assassin.” But when Mark would start shooting, he couldn’t see through the eyepiece on the camera because it was so small. He said, “Let’s just go back to 35mm.”
“The Assassin” is currently playing at the IFC Center.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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