The Assassin

The Assassin (刺客聶隱娘, 2015) is a Taiwanese drama-martial arts film you can watch online on iFILM. Director Hou Hsiao-hsien took home the Best Director prize at Cannes that year — only the second Taiwanese film ever to win in that category.

Ninth-century China. Nie Yinniang, played by Shu Qi, was taken from her family as a child and raised to kill. She completes her missions without hesitation. Then her mistress sends her back to her home province with a final order: eliminate the military governor there — a cousin she was once promised to in marriage. Thirteen years have passed. He has a family. She has doubts she was never trained to handle.

Hou tells this story almost entirely through stillness — long shots of fog-covered mountains, interiors lit by single candles, action scenes that end in seconds. Cinematographer Mark Lee Ping-bin shot the film on location in central Taiwan, and the landscape becomes its own argument about time and loss. Stream The Assassin (2015) online on iFILM.