Cannes 2015: The Assassin Review - The Most Overrated Film Of The Festival

Rating: ˜…˜… "After 13 years of exile, young woman must confront her parents, her memories and her long-repressed feelings." reads the press release for The Assassin, Hou Hsiao-Hsien's period martial arts movie. That's all well and good, but you kinda need that to be in the movie itself to actually claim it. The only word of that summary that comes across watching Nie Yinniang is "woman"; everything else is absent from a film that's well made but utterly lacking in heart. Oh, it looks incredible. The landscape shots are vast, with the foreground and background contrasting in frames that could be hung in a gallery, while interiors boast a flawless set design; for those in tune with the intricacies of Chinese history it'll be a treat. And then there's the action - infrequent as they may be, the fight sequences are fluid and clearly composed. The film could just about hold your attention on the visuals alone, with every fifteen minutes or so offering a new location to fawn over. But all that hard work is for nothing; the film's plot is borderline incomprehensible and any point to the whole thing scattered at best. An opening text card fills you in on the political structure of the Tang Dynasty, but if you want any more story or character you'll be left wanting; Yinniang is coming back to her past life, but any confrontation is bland, any memories unreferenced and any feelings kept unmentioned until a last minute scene where she explicitly states motivations for one singular element. It's so hazy only those who'd geeked out over the costume accuracy would actually freely admit they followed the whole thing. This is the closest thing this festival has offered up to The Tree Of Life, one the most divisive films from recent Competitions; the plot is so slight and the meaning so broad that you can act as if there's some greater meaning in the vague hand-waving when there really isn't. It's an empty film ready for the viewer to impress false meaning on it. It's presumably that welcoming quality that has led to the film garnering obscene levels of praise, with reviews and initial reaction Tweets begging for it to win the Palme d'Or. If that happens, then all the progress this festival has made - with a female-directed opening film and a plethora of Competition entrants with challenging, or otherwise exciting, themes - is for nought. Keep up with all of our Cannes 2015 coverage on the official page here.