Customer Ratings & Reviews

From Taiwanese filmmaker Hou Hsiao Hsien comes an interesting take on a martial arts. Those expecting typical asian action are forewarned that this is not that. Beautifully shot and acted, Hou is more interested in the morals and ethics of an Assassin and realistically depicts action as brief and quick. A fine film for those seeking a thoughtful martial arts story.

I got this movie for my best friend. I was afraid that he wouldn't like it. What a shocker. A week after I gave him the movie, he said he likes it a lot. Yes there's not much action & yes it's slow & hardly any line from the main character. But it was all intentional. You'll understand what I'm talking about once you see the director's explanation.

Great action. Kinda slow but worth your while. Beautifully done

A very good looking film that shows a rich looking view of the chinese landscape. The costumes are very rich and detailed. The acting is good, I give this film a 10 based on this. As for being a action film, I would give the film a 3.

It seems that as Hollywood continues its descent into film making mediocrity, the Asian theater (China/Taiwan, S. Korea, Japan, Thailand, etc.) continue to produce truly original, beautiful, first class films. Sure, many if not most are subtitled, but I'm personally puzzled why someone would let this stop them from watching great films. 'Pan's Labyrinth' comes to mind. This film is staggering in its beauty, vision, and cinematography. The actual martial arts scenes don't dominate the story and act as filler and are certainly not run of the mill 15 minute affairs (which is OK from time to time!). Highly recommended!

Oh boy is this slow, slow, slow. No English dub. Reading subtitles isn't a problem as nothing is going on when subtitles are present. Total action probably less than 15 minutes. No context ever presented when new characters appear. A typical event: man is sleeping, man gets up and stokes fire, man goes back to bed...5 minutes. An extensive making the tea scene. Most lines are delivered then everyone strikes a meaningful pose for a minute before the next breathtaking event. Video quality could have been handled by a DVD.

This movie is great it does not come in English format so that you do have to read as you can that is not a problem for me to buy you all the ones where you have to read.

This movie looks beautiful, gorgeous cinematography. Unfortunately the script is sorely lacking, there's long stretches of meandering silence and avante-garde movie-isms.

THIS FIL HAD GREAT VISUALS ANG CINEMETOGRAGHY. FEATEUER SOME SPECTACULAR MARTIAL ARTS AND ACTION SEQUENCES. THE STORY LINE WAS DECEINT AND WAS FAIRLY WELL DIRECTED.

It was a decent moving but no English version. English subtitles are available but are too small and disappear quickly so hard to really follow the plot.

I hadn't heard about The Assassin before its home video release, so the film was a pleasant surprise. I would definitely recommend checking it ou.

It's a real good movie I'm going to watch it again to learn more about all the characters in the movie the more you watch it the more you learn.

It was okay. Cinematography of environment was beautiful. Kung Fu was lame. Story line was lame and hard to follow. A lot of back and forth.

I always liked the Bruce Lee old school versus school. Now we have movies that actually have a plot with excellent fighting scenes.

It is not an action movie. The pace of the movie is slow and beautiful. I like the Chinese subtitle and the Mandarin language.

The acting and directing are both great. This is a slower paced film with lots of emotional depth. Well worth watching

This may not be for everyone, but if you are interested in serious, beautiful, and meditative cinema, this is for you.

The store ran out on this movie in blue-ray so I ordered it online. It was entertaining and worth the effort of ordering.

It's not a film for martial arts fans. Very little fighting as a matter of fact. Great video quality and sound too.

Reviews gave it a high score but it's one of the few movies lately that didn't completely draw me in sadly.