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。

　　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。

　　更多精彩内容 >> 新东方网英语频道 

　　全国新东方英语课程搜索

（责任编辑：何莹莹）