OVERVIEW: Back with his first film in eight years, award-winning Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien (Flight of the Red Balloon, Three Times) wowed this year’s Cannes Film Festival (where he won Best Director) with his awe-inspiring THE ASSASSIN, debuting on Blu-ray™, DVD and Digital HD January 26 from Well Go USA Entertainment. Rich with shimmering, breathing texture and punctuated by brief but unforgettable bursts of action, THE ASSASSIN is a martial arts film like none other. The visually stunning, action-packed film blends tragic historical drama with thrilling swordplay and martial arts in this story of an exiled assassin (Shu Qi, Tai Chi Hero, The Transporter) who must choose between love or duty when she receives orders to kill a man (Chang Chen, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The Grandmaster) from her past. With a Certified Fresh rating of 83% on Rotten Tomatoes, THE ASSASSIN also stars Zhou Yun (Let the Bullets Fly) and Tsumabuki Satoshi (The Vancouver Asahi).

In addition to winning Best Director at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, THE ASSASSIN also won the Cannes Soundtrack Award for Composer Giong Lim and was nominated for the prestigious Palme d’Or. At the 2015 Golden Horse Film Festival, the film was nominated in 10 categories, taking home prizes for Best Director, Best Feature Film, Best Cinematography, Best Makeup & Costume Design and Best Sound Effects. THE ASSASSIN is Taiwan’s submission for Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards®.

SYNOPSIS: In 9th-century China, Nie Yinniang is a young woman who was abducted in childhood from a decorated general and raised by a nun who trained her in the martial arts. After 13 years of exile, she is returned to the land of her birth as an exceptional assassin, with orders to kill her betrothed husband-to-be. She must confront her parents, her memories, and her long-repressed feelings in a choice to sacrifice the man she loves or break forever with the sacred way of the righteous assassins.

BLU-RAY: The film is presented in widescreen in a 2.40:1 aspect ration preserving its theatrical format. The picture is just flawless. Not only the picture looks great in this release, also the sound it is good, a 5.1 Dolby Digital in English that provides a good complement to the picture. It also includes  English  and Spanish subtitles.

VIDEO:
Widescreen (2.40:1) 16x9

AUDIO:
English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Subtitles - English Spanish 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Behind-the-Scenes
o Nie Yinniang
o The Actors: No Rehearsals
o The Fights Between Masters
o A Time Machine To The Tang Dynasty