The iconic fight choreography from Yuen Woo-ping – performed by the cast including Michelle Yeoh, Chow Yun-fat, Zhang Ziyi, Cheng Pei-pei, and more – is a magical sight to behold The score from Tan Dun is delicate and unobtrusive The cinematography from Peter Pau makes every setting look majestic and the cast is top-notch, selling the palpable drama throughout a strong, mostly female-led story that examines, among several things, gender roles in China.Įverything about it is operating at such a perfect level.
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In the landscape of wuxia films, The Assassin is a marvel of craftsmanship and cinematography, looking and moving in such captivating ways it makes up for its deliberately slow pace.Ī list like this without including the groundbreaking Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is like making a list of the greatest TV shows ever without including The Sopranos: What’s even the point? An adaptation of the novel of the same name by Wang Dulu, Ang Lee’s wuxia masterpiece is still lauded over 20 years later for a reason, and that reason is that it still holds up as being very, very good.
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Instead, she lingers out of sight, listening in on political intrigue or waiting to bounce in for a fight – of which Hsiao-hsien handles quickly or even far out of view.Īlmost an antithesis to many of the other movies on this list, Hsiao-hsien favors letting the humans at its core exist without needing to leap into action, letting the viewer bask in gorgeous scene after scene defined by conversation or pure silence. A story about a woman raised from a young age to kill without question – but is put in a position where her remaining humanity forces her to change course, the compellingly stoic Shu Qi hardly has any dialogue as the titular assassin Yinniang.
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Hou Hsiao-hsien’s first foray into wuxia, The Assassin (adapted from the classic Chinese short story, “Nie Yinniang”), lives for stillness emphasized by long takes on the actors, and the arresting costumes, art direction, and natural landscapes. Many of the movies on this list feature plenty of intense action sequences, big personalities, and plenty of melodrama.