"The Assassin" (2015)

The Assassin, also known as 刺客聶隱娘; pinyin: Cìkè Niè Yǐnniáng; or: The Assassin Niè Yǐnniáng) is a 2015 wuxia film directed by Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien. A Taiwan/China/Hong Kong co-production,[3][7] it was an official selection in the main competition section at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival.[8][9] At Cannes, Hou won the award for Best Director.

(Synopsis): Back with his first film in 8 years, legendary Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien wowed this year's Cannes Film Festival (where he won Best Director) with his awe-inspiring THE ASSASSIN - a wondrous take on the traditional wuxia film. The story is simple, if elusive - in 9th-century China, Nie Yinniang is a young woman who was abducted in childhood from a decorated general and raised by a nun who trained her in the martial arts. After 13 years of exile, she is returned to the land of her birth as an exceptional assassin, with orders to kill her betrothed husband-to-be. She must confront her parents, her memories, and her long-repressed feelings in a choice to sacrifice the man she loves or break forever with the sacred way of the righteous assassins. Rich with shimmering, breathing texture and punctuated by brief but unforgettable bursts of action, THE ASSASSIN is a martial arts film like none made before it.

Starring: Chang Chen, Shu Qi, Zhou Yun, Tsumabuki Satoshi

Director: Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Producer: Huang Wen-Ying, Running Time: 105          minutes, Release Date: Jan 26, 2016, Original Language: Mandarin, Dubbed Language: N/A, Subtitle: English, Extra: Behind The Scenes, Production companies: Central Motion Pictures, China Dream Film Culture Industry, Media Asia Films, Sil-Metropole Organisation, SpotFilms, Zhejiang Huace Film & TV, Distributed by:  North America: Well Go USA, United Kingdom: StudioCanal, Release date:, 21 May 2015 (Cannes), 27 August 2015 (China & Hong Kong), 28 August 2015 (Taiwan)