Martial arts arthouse epic "The Assassin," for which Taiwanese auteur Hou Hsiao-Hsien won Best Director at Cannes in May, will open in mainland theaters on Aug. 27, the film's distributor Huace Film & TV announced on Monday.
The film, based on a short wuxia (martial arts heroes in ancient China) story taking place in the ninth century, follows a skilled assassin played by Shu Qi, who is tasked with killing a key political figure who turns out to be her childhood love.
Though widely known for his poignant social-realist depictions of ordinary lives in the turbulent contemporary history of Taiwan, Hou claimed that "The Assassin" resembled a genre he had long dreamed of tapping since he was a wuxia novel-addicted boy.
According to Hou, his screenwriting team did plenty of field work to hone the script, and characters in the film are crafted based on meticulous research in books from the Tang Dynasty.