Annual Top Films Lists

Top 200 Most Anticipated Films for 2014: #27. Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s The Assassin

Published on March 5, 2014

The Assassin

Director: Hou Hsiao-Hsien
Writer: T’ien-wen Chu
Producer: Wen-Ying Huang
U.S. Distributor: Rights Available
Cast: Shu Qi, Chang Chen, Satoshi Tsumabuki, Ethan Ruan and Nikki Hsieh, with Ni Dahong, Zhang Shijun, Michael Chang, Jiang Wen, Zuo Xiaoqing, Xu Fan, Tadanobu Asano, Zhou Yunin

Flight of the Red Balloon broke Hou Hsiao-Hsien from his observational, paint-drying long aesthetic treatment and so when news first broke out many moons ago that the Taiwanese filmmaker would next make a martial arts film we naturally thought, this will be interesting. With muse actress Shu Qi toplining, the making of The Assassin might be deserving a film itself – the production (the first scenes were shot in 2010), which concluded in January lasted well over a year.

Gist: Based on a short story, this about a female assassin during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.) who begins to question her loyalties when she falls in love with one of her targets.

Release Date: Cannes Film Festival.

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Eric Lavallée

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).