the assassin

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Shin Hyun-Joon Kills It As THE ASSASSIN In The First Teaser!

Part of my hope nowadays as we get a look at this newest South Korean sword slasher, The Assassin, is that it’ll help spotlight another film featuring the same star at the time. Indeed it was Kim Young-jun’s Bichunmoo: Warrior Of Virtue that put actor Shin Hyun-joon on my radar a little over fifteen years ago, and with a film wholly indicative of the types of wuxia and kung fu productions the likes of fans of Wong Jing and Tsui Hark could take a liking to, and frankly it deserves a place somewhere on one of today’s current streaming mediums if not a renewed physical release at some point.

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THE ASSASSIN Gets A China/HK Release Date

Seven years in the making under painstaking and tedious production hinderances are largely what make this one a crowning achievement despite its ballooned budget. Alas, this should be yet another welcoming addition to audiences in the U.S. when the film releases via Well Go USA in the next several months after folks in TIFF attendees get to lend an eye first.

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Hou's THE ASSASSIN Makes The Rounds With A New Poster!

It’s been a long, long journey for the The Puppetmaster and Goodbye South, Goodbye helmer, Taiwanese filmmaker Hou Hsien-Hsiao whose latest martial arts debut with the $14 million dollar action romance epic, The Assassin, initially saw cameras rolling as early as 2010 and 2012 before being plagued by a series of unfortunate stops and starts. Those who are familiar with the DNA of Hou’s work might empathize just a little bit as it was new ground for the director who talked about his experience back in 2014 when he officially wrapped production, and needless to say, the wait is just a little bit closer to being over with the virility of the latest poster for the film which you can take a look at below, courtesy of international sales agent, Wild Bunch.

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THE ASSASSIN Wraps Principal Photography

Actress Shu Qi (The Transporter, Journey To The West: Conquering The Demons) is set to star in a new film from director Hou Hsiao Hsien titled The Assassin, also known as The Hidden Heroine, which has reportedly officially wrapped principal photography this week. The news comes with the film having been well over a few decades in the making as Hou initially planned the film back in the late 1980’s with screenwriter Chu Tien-Wen, followed by kicking off its hectic fifteen month schedule with locations set in China, Taiwan and Japan.

Based on a short story from a compilation known as “The Extensive Records Of The Taiping Era” (a.k.a. Tàipíng Guǎngjì), Hou‘s new film is set in the Tang Dynasty and centers around Qi‘s portrayal of young girl named Nie Yin Niang who is kidnapped by a Taoist nun who trains her to become an assassin, assigned to take out any selected target when ordered, until she falls in love with one of her targets and begins to question her loyalites. Filming initially kicked off in 2010 with its main schedule starting in October 2012, which then became plagued by an unfortunate series of cancelled and re-scheduled shoots, among other things. Hou explained his experience in the following passage, courtesy from statments published last November at Filmbiz Asia:

I haven’t shot a movie in six or seven years. It’s really a whole new world for me because the market is now so big, because of China. So the scale is much bigger, and that makes every detail different, so now even I have to adjust my scale. 

Shooting a film set during the Tang Dynasty, you can’t treat it like how you shoot a modern story. With a contemporary movie, if you don’t get what you want then you can keep shooting. If something’s not right on set, you can change it on the spot. 

But if you’re shooting the Tang Dynasty, if you didn’t prepare it beforehand, then the set won’t be there and the costumes aren’t prepared. You can’t just conjure them, so it turns out that every single detail you gotta prepare and prepare for ages. 

Because of my way of film-making, maybe it makes my movies stylised, but you can only do that if you have time. But Tang dynasty’s sets… so many sets! And the fighting choreography! My god! I was deep in shit. It was terrible!”

The Assassin stars Qi along with Chang Chen, Satoshi Tsumabuki, Ethan Ruan and Nikki Hsieh, with Ni Dahong, Zhang Shijun, Michael Chang, Jiang Wen, Zuo Xiaoqing, Xu Fan, Tadanobu Asano and Zhou Yunin rounding out the cast. The film was written by Chu along with Hou and A. Cheng, and produced by Dai Song and Stephen Lam, and is currently aiming for a film festival run at Cannes this year. Qi is also starring in Wen‘s late 2014 black comedy action thriller, Gone With The Bullets.

Stay tuned for more information.

Photo: JayneStars

H/T: Filmbiz Asia

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