Hou Hsiao-Hsien may not be a household name in America, but the legendary Taiwanese director —responsible for sterling dramas about his native country’s history and culture, including 1993’s “The Puppetmaster,” 1996’s “Goodbye South, Goodbye,” 1998’s “Flowers of Shanghai,” and 2005’s “Three Times”— has made a bid for greater mainstream recognition with “The Assassin.”
A meditation on the Chinese “wuxia” (i.e. martial arts/swordsman) genre, Hou’s latest retains his signature long takes, poetic pacing and naturalistic atmosphere, even as it employs these elements for more action-oriented material. The story of a trained killer (Shu Qi) who after a failed mission is sent back to her hometown to slay its governor (Cang Chen), “The Assassin” is a film of dazzling, hypnotic beauty.
READ MORE: Cannes Review: Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s ‘The Assassin’ Is An Epic Visual Poem
Having nabbed Hou a Best Director prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and having premiered stateside to critical praise at the New York Film Festival, it’s one of the year’s finest imports. While in town for the NYFF, Hou sat down with the Playlist to discuss his lifelong love of the martial arts genre, the changes he made to his source material, and the reason for the eight-year gap between 2007’s “Flight of the Red Balloon” and “The Assassin.”
I know you’ve been a serious fan of “wuxia” films since you were a child. Was it always your intention to make one yourself?
As you mentioned, my love of martial arts novels started very early. I started reading them when I was in fifth and sixth grade, and I pretty much finished all of the contemporary martial arts novels. Then I went back in time to different dynasties, to read the “Notebook” novels, which are short stories and legends, and one of which is the Tang legends. They are very short and there are lots of interesting stories and characters. It was in college that I first came across the story of Nie Yinniang (“Nie Yinniang” by Pei Xing). I always had it in my head that one day I was going to make a film about this particular character in my movie. So when I was at the National University of Arts majoring in film, that is when I first thought about making this.
Why adapt this story in particular? And how does your film differ from the short story?
As I mentioned, these stories are short, including this one, and I was really attracted to this particular character immediately. She was a character that when she was very, very young, she was seen by a nun. The nun saw her potential, and thus wanted to train her as an assassin. So she requested that her father let her train this particular little girl. Her father was a very famous general at the time, and he pretty much told the nun, “in your dreams” and “over my dead body.” But then the nun told him that even if you hide her in a closet, I’m going to get her. And later that night, she kidnapped her to train as an assassin.
After the girl learned all the skills of an assassin, the nun returned her to the family, and her parents were very curious about what she’d learned throughout these years. She told them that they were trained as a group and that they learned how to kill monkeys, tigers and even eagles. The parents were very shocked about the information that she disclosed and didn’t really know what to do with her. And by chance, a mirror-polishing boy somehow came around —and at the time, to see clearly, you needed to constantly polish the mirrors. So this character came about, and the girl requested to marry him. The parents agreed, and so they built this little house right next to where they lived so they could settle down and not cause any trouble.
As for my film, its black-and-white prologue concerns two assassination attempts: one is successful and happens very quickly, and one has her going to assassinate this particular character. Seeing that a child is present, she decides not to, and is confronted about it by the nun. These two assassination attempts pretty closely stick to the original novels. Later on, when the film is in color, it’s more of an adaptation of the original story.
“The Assassin” is something of a departure for you, into more action-oriented territory. What is it about wuxia films that appeal to you?
My brothers and I were all avid readers of martial arts novels; we’d go to street vendors and we’d finish all of the different martial arts books. After one year, we’d just about finished everything available at the time, so then we’d have to wait, and wait, and wait, for new ones. In the meantime, we’d move on to other gangster novels, or melodramatic novels. In middle school, I started reading lots of translated novels from the West, including the “Robinson Crusoe” stories, “The Count of Monte Cristo,” and all of those famous translated novels. When I got to high school and college, I began getting involved with films, but in the back of my mind, I kept thinking about those novels, and especially those martial arts novels I read in childhood.
Not only that, but also the film industry was full of very popular martial arts films —from the Shaw Brothers, and you had those samurai films from Japan. So my inspiration [to take on a project like “The Assassin”] came partly because of my childhood memories, and partly because of the films that were popular when I first started making films.
