FREE THE ASSASSIN PDF Andrew Britton | 448 pages | 01 Feb 2008 | Kensington Publishing | 9780786018017 | English | New York, United States The Assassin () - IMDb After a brief detour to pick up the Best Director award at Cannes earlier this year, "The Assassin," the eagerly awaited historical martial arts epic from renowned Chinese filmmaker Hou Hsiao-Hsien, The Assassin finally arrived on our shores and it is indeed a curious experience. The story is told in such an enigmatic manner that even with the voluminous notes that I took during the screening, I remain The Assassin confused by certain plot points. On The Assassin other hand, conventional and easy-to-follow narratives can be found The Assassin, but very few of them occur in films that are as visually ravishing and formally graceful as what Hou has cooked up here. The Assassin in ninth-century China during a time of unrest that would eventually lead to the decline of the Tand Dynasty, "The Assassin" tells the story of Nie Yinniang Shu Quiwho was kidnapped by her family when she was only 10 by Jiaxin Sheu Fang-yia nun who trained her to become a brutally efficient assassin specializing in killing corrupt government officials. As the story begins, she demonstrates her abilities by killing her target—a man on horseback—with such lethal precision that it takes both her victim and viewers of the film a few moments to register that the deed has been done. Alas, Yinniang is not quite as ruthless as she seems to be, and when she confronts her next target and finds his young son in the room with him, she finds that she is unable to do the deed and lets him live. This The Assassin of mercy sends Jiaxin into a rage, and she devises a plan that she believes will force Yinniang to do her duty and divest her of the sympathy that caused her to The Assassin her previous mission. Yinniang is sent to Weibo, the largest province and one where the Imperial Court is currently of an unstable nature, to kill the governor, Lord Tian The Assassin Chang Chenand plunge the region into chaos. This is a bit tricky for Yinniang The Assassin not only is Lord Tian her cousin, it is revealed that before her disappearance, she was supposed to one day marry him The Assassin a union that would have helped bring lasting peace between the region and his court. Of course, Yinniang cannot bring herself to kill Lord Tian, though she does perform a series of brief ambushes designed to alert him The Assassin her presence. At the same time, Lord Tian dismisses his right-hand man, Xia Jing Juan Ching-tian from the court because of his outspoken nature and it is Xia's The Assassin to this that turns out to be the spark that incites the battles to come. Instead of rushing through the plot-oriented material The Assassin order to get to the action, Hou allows the story to reveal The Assassin in a deliberately slow and occasionally digressive manner that prefers having characters recount their The Assassin directly, rather than streamlining the plot threads The Assassin flashbacks The Assassin other tricks. For those not used to this manner of storytelling, especially in the context of what is supposed to be a martial arts narrative, "The Assassin" may prove to be bewildering. That said, it should be stressed that the story is confusing but not confused, and my guess is that it will make a lot more sense upon a second viewing. And for many of those who The Assassin "The Assassin," a second viewing will probably be in the cards as other aspects of the film The Assassin simple stunning to behold. Shooting in glorious 35mm, Hou and cinematographer Mark Lee Ping Bing have come up with the most stylistically fascinating and visually striking work of their numerous collaborations—there is not a single uninteresting shot that I can recall and many The Assassin so beautiful that one looks The Assassin them as they might observe a painting in a museum. The fight scenes have been devised in a way so that they are drained of all lurid excess in order to accentuate that participating in such violence is merely a job for Yinniang, and not something that she derives any pleasure from—that said, the combat staging is still The Assassin expertly done despite the lack of tricked-up editing or flashy camera moves that it stands as a silent rebuke to all the noisy and messy dust-ups in most contemporary blockbusters. Besides, a film does not need such visual fripperies when it has a presence as magnetic as Shu Qui at its The Assassin. In her third collaboration with Hou, she is never less than absolutely mesmerizing, adding immeasurably to The Assassin dramatic heft of the story. Moviegoers attending "The Assassin" in the hopes of seeing another auteur-driven martial arts epic along the lines of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," "House of Flying Shadows" or "The Grandmaster" are likely to come away from it feeling a little disappointed—those who dig the genre because of the bloodshed will be appalled to discover that it is practically gore-free. However, if they are at the film because they want to be transported to another time and place by a world-class filmmaker working at the peak of his powers, they're likely to find themselves as enraptured as I was by The Assassin Hou has come up with this time around. Peter Sobczynski is a contributor to eFilmcritic. Shu Qi as Nie Yinniang. Chang Chen as Tian Ji'an. Satoshi Tsumabuki as The Mirror Polisher. Reviews The Assassin. Peter Sobczynski October The Assassin, Now streaming The Assassin. Powered by JustWatch. Peter Sobczynski Peter Sobczynski The Assassin a contributor to eFilmcritic. Now playing. Spontaneous Matt Zoller Seitz. Vampires vs. The Mortuary Collection Roxana Hadadi. Kingdom of Silence Carlos Aguilar. Film Credits. Latest blog posts. Jody Hamilton - Wikipedia Joseph Hamilton born August 28, [2] is an American retired professional wrestler and current wrestling promoter and trainer. In his active days, Hamilton was best known as one half of the tag team The Assassins where he was called " Assassin 1 ". Hamilton teamed up with Tom Renesto in late to form the masked heel bad guy team known as "The Assassins" and, for over a decade, Hamilton and Renesto wrestled all over the world with great success. Once Renesto retired, Hamilton kept the Assassins team alive by partnering with The Assassin such as Randy Colley and "Hercules" Hernandez under the trademark gold and black masks of the Assassins. In the late s, The Assassin founded Deep South Wrestling DSWwhere he also wrestled until a back injury forced him to retire in Hamilton was born in St. JosephMissouri. Before turning professional, Hamilton was a promising amateur boxerbut instead of continuing his training, he decided that he wanted to follow in the footsteps of his older brother Larry Hamilton. Larry was a professional wrestler billed as "The Missouri Mauler". ByHamilton had started teaming with his brother Larry and worked as a full-time professional wrestler. After the Hamilton brothers time in New York, Jody Hamilton decided to strike out on his own working as a singles wrestler. Hamilton has revealed in The Assassin years that the "Silent" moniker was because he was not very good at interviews and promos. Renesto had teamed with Hamilton's older brother Larry but the two did not know each other before stepping into the ring in December The team worked well together from the onset and soon moved up the card towards the main events. For over a dozen years Hamilton and Renesto teamed together as the "vile" Assassins, a team hated for their "rulebreaking ways" wherever they wrestled. At times the Assassins would be backed up by Jody's brother the Missouri The Assassin to take on the Kentuckians and their "fellow hillbilly" Haystacks Calhoun. During their time in GCW Renesto became more and move involved in the booking of the promotion in the hopes of turning a decline in attendance around. Renesto is credited with turning the territory around with a series of hotly contested angles that brought the fans back. With his backstage responsibilities expanded Renesto cut back on his wrestling dates as Hamilton was pushed as The Assassin singles wrestler. After the unmasking Renesto would still occasionally team with Hamilton both The Assassin and without the mask but the glory days of the Assassins ended when Renesto The Assassin off the mask. Renesto retired from the ring and focused more on the booking aspects of GCW while Hamilton started to work as a The Assassin wrestler billed simply as "The Assassin". Wrestling II that would become the longest running storyline in Georgia wrestling history. Wrestling II and various face partners. One of these partners was Randy Colleywho would go The Assassin to greater success as one of The Moondogs in the s. One night in Hamilton was thrown from The Assassin top rope during a match and landed wrong, the fall caused him to break the lumbar vertebrae in The Assassin back. Because Hamilton was in no shape to run a wrestling promotion he sold it to someone else, only to see that person go out of business without ever putting on a wrestling show. Once Hamilton recovered from his back injury he opened the official training center for World Championship Wrestlingthe Power Plant. As well as working at the Power Plant Hamilton was The Assassin used as a manager inmainly managing Paul Orndorffin addition to Orndorff's tag team partners The Equalizer and Paul Roma.