About the Event
The Assassin
Directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien
(Taiwan, 2015, 115 min.)
Friday October 14 | 7:00 PM
Rice Cinema’s part in Wuxia Cinema: The Magic of Martial Arts, in partnership with the Ministry of Culture and the Taiwan Academy of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and the Asia Society. Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s contribution to the Wuxia genre of swordplay films is both true to the genre but also clearly a film by Taiwan’s master filmmaker (City of Sadness). Shu Qi plays the title character, a stone killer forced by her mistress into a plan to kill and person from her past. Winner of Best Director at Cannes, and Film of the Year from Sight & Sound. “A mesmerizing slow burn of a martial-arts movie that boldly merges stasis and kinesis, turns momentum into abstraction, and achieves breathtaking new heights of compositional elegance: shot for shot, it’s perhaps the most ravishingly beautiful film Ho has ever made, and certainly one of his most deeply transporting” – Justin Chang, Variety.
Prof. Karen Fang, Professor of English at the University of Houston and Chair of the UH Class Initiative in Media and the Moving Image, will introduce the film.
Discounted parking at Founder’s Court. $5 flat rate, credit card required.
