Review of The Assassin (2015) by Phillip D — 10 Sep 2016
It's hard to imagine what critics saw in Hou's Assassin. Its action, what little there is, looks terrible and lacks impact and the rest of the film, of which there is a lot, is mostly abstract conversation and glamour shots that aim for Kubrick and probably end up more like the overly pretentious Malick.
What's interesting is that beautiful and thoughtful Asian film masterpieces have already been accomplished in movies like Memoirs of a Geisha. Likewise, fantastic, brutal and emotional action has also been accomplished in films like The Raid and IP Man.
To see this film fail to live up to any of those examples showcases how much of a failure this movie was. And it wasn't the subtitles either, as The Raid films managed to communicate emotion and visceral violence extremely effectively through English subtitles.
Really, The Assassin is just a bloated vanity piece that wastes some decent shots and a good looking cast in favor of a delusional sense of artistry. And that's a real shame.
This review of The Assassin (2015) was written by Phillip D on 10 Sep 2016.
The Assassin has generally received positive reviews.
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