33° TORINO FILM FESTIVAL
FESTA MOBILE 2015

NIE YINNIANG

THE ASSASSIN
by Hou Hsiao-Hsien
Country: Taiwan, China, Hong Kong
Year: 2015
Duration: 104'


In 9th century China, a ten-year-old girl named Nie Yinniang is taken away from her parents and raised to become an assassin to fight the spreading corruption and cruelty in the provinces of the Empire. Thirteen years later, after failing in a mission, the punishment inflicted on her by her combat instructor is even more harsh than the rigid discipline she had to undergo. Nie Yinniang will have to return to her home and kill the man she was supposed to marry, a cousin she is still in love with.

Biography

film director

Hou Hsiao-Hsien

Hou Hsiao-Hsien (China, 1947) was born in China but moved to Taiwan. After studying at Taiwan National University of Arts, he worked as an assistant director, debuted in directing in 1980 with Cute Girl and gained fame with All the Youthful Days (1983). His have won many awards, including the FIPRESCI Prize at the Berlin Film Festival for his masterpiece A Time to Live and a Time to Die (1985), the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival for A City of Sadness (1989) and the Jury Prize at Cannes for The Puppetmaster (1993). Hou has returned to Cannes several times, receiving the Grand Jury Prize for Millenium Mambo (2001) and the prize for Best Director for The Assassin.

FILMOGRAFIA

Jiu shi liu liu de ta (Cute Girl, 1980), Feng er ti ta cai (Blind of Love, 1981), Zai na hepan qingcao qing (The Green, Green Grass of Home, 1983), Fenggui lai de ren (I ragazzi di Feng Kuei, 1983), Tong nian wang shi (Tempo di vivere, tempo di morire, 1985), Lianlian Fengchen (Dust in the Wind, 1986), Beqing chengshi (Città dolente, 1989), Hsimeng Rensheng (Il maestro burattinaio, 1993), Hao nan, hao nü (Good Men, Good Women, 1995), Nanguo zaijan, nanguo (Goodbye South, Goodbye, 1996), Hai shang hua (Flowers of Shanghai, 1998), Qianxi Mambo (Millennium Mambo, 2001), Kôhî jikô (Café Lumière, 2003), Zui hao de shi guang (Three Times, 2005), Le voyage du ballon rouge (2007), À chacun son cinéma (ep. The Electric Princess House, cm, 2007), The Assassin (2015).

Declaration

film director

“I’ve known and loved the Tang Dynasty chuanqi since my high school and college days, and I’ve long dreamed of filming them. The Assassin is directly inspired by one of them, titled Nie Yinniang. You could say that I took the basic dramatic idea from it. The literature of the period is shot through with details of everyday life; you could call it ‘realist’ in that sense. But I needed more than that for the film, so I spent a long time reading accounts and histories of that period to familiarise myself with the ways people ate, dressed and so on. I was attentive to the smallest details.”

Cast

& Credits

regia/director
Hou Hsiao-Hsien
sceneggiatura/screenplay
Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Chu Tien-Wen, Hsieh Hai-Meng, Zhong Acheng
fotografia/cinematography
Mark Lee Ping Bing
montaggio/film editing
Liao Ching-Sung, Huang Chih-Chia
scenografia, costumi/production design, costume design
Hwarng Wern-Ying
musica/music
Lim Giong
suono/sound
Tu Duu-Chih
interpreti e personaggi/cast and characters
Shu Qi (Nie Yinniang), Chang Chen (Tian Ji’an, il governatore di Weibo/governor of Weibo), Zhou Yun (Lady Tian), Tsumabuki Satoshi (il lavavetri/mirror polisher), Juan Ching-Tian (Xia Jing), Hsieh Hsin-ying (Huji), Sheu Fang-yi (la principessa/princess Jiacheng e la sacerdotessa-principessa/and the Princess-nun Jiaxin)
produttori/producers
Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Chen Yiqi, Lam Peter, Lin Kufn, Gou Tai-Chiang, Tung Tzu-Hsien
distribuzione/distribution
Movies Inspired


contatti/contacts
Movies Inspired
Stefano Jacono
stefano.jacono@moviesinspired.com
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