The Assassin

The Assassin is set in ninth-century China during the Tang dynasty. Nie Yinniang was taken from her home as a child and raised by a nun who trained her in the martial arts, turning her into an assassin used to remove corrupt provincial governors. After she fails in one of her assignments, her teacher sends her back to the region where she was born with orders to kill Tian Ji'an, a cousin to whom she was once promised in marriage and who now commands the largest military province in northern China. Returning after thirteen years away, she must face her family, her past and feelings she had long kept buried.

Hou Hsiao-hsien directed, working from a screenplay he wrote with Chu Tien-wen and Cheng A. The film came late in a career that includes The Time to Live and the Time to Die, A City of Sadness, Flowers of Shanghai and Millennium Mambo. Shu Qi plays Nie Yinniang, with Chang Chen as Tian Ji'an, Zhou Yun as Lady Tian, Satoshi Tsumabuki as a mirror polisher, Ni Dahong as Nie Feng and Xu Fan as the nun. It was a co-production of Hong Kong, mainland China, Taiwan and France, made for about 15 million dollars and earning roughly 12 million worldwide.

Audience response was mixed: on IMDb it holds 6.3 out of 10 from more than 17,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.4 from several hundred. Film critics rated it considerably higher, 7.5 out of 10 across 130 reviews.