Nuanced killer with a conscience

TAIWANESE auteur Hou Hsiao-Hsien's first foray into the wuxia genre, The Assassin, is notable more for its quiet elegance and evocative embrace of the details than any high-octane martial-arts sequences. The film, set during the Tang Dynasty (9th century), is an intricate, intriguing and at times painfully slow-moving tale of a female warrior on a mission to murder a man she was once betrothed to.

Hou, whose films include A Time to Live, A Time to Die (1985) and The Puppetmaster (1993), is a master of arthouse cinema and a darling of the film festival circuit. His films resonate with the literary crowd because of a restrained, naturalistic approach to storytelling and the sheer visual beauty on display.

The prologue - shot in high-contrast black-and-white - makes for a startling opening scene. Two women stand under a clump of trees, shaded from the morning sun, discussing death. Leaves rustle around them and in the blink of an eye, a killing takes place - leaving us unsure as to how it happened, or why.