For its sheer beauty, its mesmeric compositional sense and pure balletic poise, Hou Hsiao-hsien’s distinctive and slow-moving wuxia tale The Assassin demands attention.
侯孝贤独具一格的慢动作武侠电影《刺客聂隐娘》画面唯美，组合镜头如梦如幻，演员动作如翩翩飞舞，值得一看。

易词解词（BY 摩西）

sheer adj. 绝对的；透明的；峻峭的；纯粹的，adv. 完全；陡峭地。不止看起来像，这个单词确实和share等有关，其本意是to cut。于是，share那就是砍下一块来分给别人，shear就是剪刀和修剪，plowshare是划开地面的犁，shareholder是持有一部分的股东，short是被切割了所以短小，shrub是要被砍下来烧火做饭的，sheer则是砍掉了多余的东西，所以纯粹了。宝马的广告语:Sheer driving pleasure.纯粹的驾驶乐趣。

genre n. 类型；种类；体裁；样式；流派；风俗画。这个单词与genus n. 类，种；[生物] 属的区别是：genre指文艺形式的种类，比如小说里的言情、纪实和武侠等，电影的科幻、动画和警匪等，绘画的抽象、野兽和写实等，或者音乐里的饶舌、摇滚和布鲁斯等。genus指的是生物学分类上的种属。二者的词根都是gen-，表出生，出生时身份的不同，基本都在说这个。

There is no doubt that The Assassin – Hou’s first feature for eight years – is a movie of great intelligence and aesthetic refinement; there is majesty and mystery in this film, particularly in the visually remarkable final minutes, when its enigmatic power begins a kind of final ascent. 
作为侯孝贤暌违八年的新作，《刺客聂隐娘》无疑是一部集智慧与美感于一身的精品之作——场面恢宏，谜团重重，尤其表现在电影的结尾：一股神秘的力量掀起了最后的高潮，给予观众震撼的视觉冲击。

Hou is concerned to do something new with the wuxia genre, to take it to the next level in his own language, and I think he is more successful here than Wong Kar-wai was with his The Grandmaster. He has brought to the wuxia material his own uncompromising seriousness, and welded this seriousness to the form’s mythic resonance.
侯孝贤想对武侠做一个全新的诠释，用自己的方式把武侠提升到一个更高的层次，在这方面我觉得他做得比王家卫的《一代宗师》更出色。他把不落俗套的严肃带到了武侠题材中，并使这种严肃与武侠电影的表现形式产生了神秘的共鸣。

It is based on the tale of Nie Yinniang or The Assassin, from the era of the Tang dynasty: in 809, a young girl played by Shu Qi is kidnapped and trained to be an assassin. But over a decade later, she is sent away by her master after failing to complete a killing and told to return to her hometown where she has a new target: a military governor who is her cousin and first love, played by Chang Chen, and so must choose between her family, her heart and her assassin’s creed.
这部电影取材自唐代刺客聂隐娘的故事：公元809年，一个年轻女子（舒淇饰）被强行带走训练成刺客。十多年后，她因为没有完成暗杀任务而被遣返回乡，在那儿她有了新的刺杀目标：一个藩镇节度使（张震饰），同时也是她的表兄兼初恋。她必须要在家人、内心和刺客的信条之间做出抉择。

The Assassin is beautifully shot by Hou’s regular cinematographer, Mark Lee Ping-Bing, and staged with flair. There are scenes of conventional action and martial arts confrontation which seem to have their own particular power, as if the combatants are flashing out from a delicate painting; but otherwise Hou sees the assassin’s life in a more occult or metaphysical sense.
《刺客聂隐娘》风格独特、美轮美奂的画面是由与侯孝贤长期合作的摄影师李屏宾拍摄的。电影里有传统的打斗和武功的较量，这些场面都具有特殊的魔力，让刀光剑影也似乎跃于精美的画幅之上。而侯孝贤对刺客的生活作了更多形而上的思考。

The movie is a distillation of the assassin’s life of watchfulness, survival and fear.
这部电影是对草木皆兵、艰难求生的刺客生活的升华。

At other times, it has a dreamlike quality: a floating hallucination. The Assassin baffles, but more often it quietly captivates and astonishes.
电影的其他部分还有一个美妙的地方，就是会让你产生飘忽的幻觉。《刺客聂隐娘》不易看懂，但它能无声无息地俘获你的内心，令你如醍醐灌顶。