Publisher's Synopsis
The Assassin tells the story of a swordswoman who refrains from killing. Hou astonishes his audience once again by upsetting almost every convention of the wuxia (martial arts) genre in the film. This collection offers eleven readings, beginning with one given by the director himself. Contributors analyze the elliptical way of storytelling, Hou's adaptation of the source text (a tale from the Tang dynasty, also included in this volume), the film's appropriation of traditional Chinese visual aesthetics, as well as the concept of xia (knight-errant) that is embedded in Confucian, Daoist, and Buddhist worldviews. There are also discussions of the much-celebrated sonic design: the nearly exclusive use of a diegetic film score is a statement on the director's belief in cinematic reality.
