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Top 100 Most Anticipated Films of 2011: Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s The Assassin

You can say we’ve been anticipating HHH’s genre switching project for a while now, as we first got word of the project back in 2007. Working with a foursome of Takeshi Kaneshiro, Shu Qi, Chang Chen and Tadanobu Asano, this martial arts and fantasy film blend certainly makes us wonder what kind of aesthetic the Taiwanese filmmaker might employ.

IONCINEMA.com Top 100 Films

#13. The Assassin

Director: Hou Hsiao-Hsien
Writer(s): Hou and Chu Tien-wen
Producers: Unknown
Distributor: Rights Available.

The Gist: This is about a female assassin called Nie Yin Niang, who can transform herself to other creatures.. In the Tang dynasty (618-907 A.D.) short story that inspired the film, a 10-year-old girl is kidnapped by a Buddhist nun and arduously trained until adulthood to kill without compassion or remorse for the greater good of society. The assassin’s loyalty to her own family, clients and society comes secondary to her own desires.….(more)

Cast: Takeshi Kaneshiro, Shu Qi, Chang Chen and Tadanobu Asano

List Worthy Reasons…You can say we’ve been anticipating HHH’s genre switching project for a while now, as we first got word of the project back in 2007. Working with a foursome of Tadanobu Asano, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Three Times pairing Shu Qi, Chang Chen and Tadanobu Asano, this martial arts and fantasy film blend certainly makes us wonder what kind of aesthetic the Taiwanese filmmaker might employ. 

Release Date/Status?: Currently in production, if HHH waited just over five years to start lensing – he may decide to wait until 2012 to premiere the film – we’re hoping for a Venice premiere.

 
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Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).

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