"The Assassin" focuses more on visuals. Whether it is the home furnishings of the noble ministers in the interior or the natural scenery of the field, the film visually presents a visual world of the ancient Tang Dynasty in two completely different styles. The film was filmed in Shennongjia, Wudang Mountains, Inner Mongolia and other places. The natural scenery of various places also makes this film more visually perfect. It is a shot looking from the inside to the door, making the interior and exterior scenes a sharp contrast. The interior is a noble house full of decoration, but the exterior scene is a pastoral scenery like a fairyland. The two sceneries are completely different, but each has its own characteristics. In the comparison, there is no meaning.
Nie Yinniang was a surprise. I was worried that the traditional old-school stories would not be able to make new martial arts novels. I did not expect that the director did not want to tell the story at all, and his skills were completely useless in the traditional narratives such as the relationship between the characters and the plot transition. The pictures were breathtakingly beautiful. Water, as well as the ancient style of the Tang Dynasty, with the traditional implicit and difficult-to-understand classical Chinese dialogue in the Eastern style, together create an innovative martial arts film with an artistic conception that has never been seen before
Although the obscure plot makes it impossible to be as confident as other Cannes films, this is undoubtedly a good work and a strong competitor for Palme d’Or, thinking it is better than Wong Kar-wai’s "The Grand Master
