Taking place in the 8th century, The Assassin is about Nie Yinnang (Shu Qi) an efficient and deadly killer trained by a white-haired nun (Fang-Yi Shue). When Yinnang fails to execute a government official because of the presence of one of his young children, the nun dispatches Yinnang to the province of Weibo. There, Yinnang’s ordered to kill another governor – this one her own cousin, and a man she was once supposed to marry. Will Yinnang complete her mission, or will her human decency again cause her to stay her blade? Yet when it comes to the story told through these beautiful images, your mileage may vary. The plot is a simple one, yet it’s doled out in such sparse, dainty morsels of dialogue that it isn’t always easy to follow who’s who, at least early on. Anyone expecting the scenes of restrained drama and grand mood setting – a breathtaking shot of a character looking out over foggy mountains, lords and ladies reclining in their gilded luxury – to give way to contrasting moments of violence will also be disappointed. Cinematographer Mark Lee Ping Bin can stage and light a scene better than anyone, yet the occasional fights in The Assassin fail to leave much of a mark. This isn’t to say that the movie required anything like the hyper-stylised wire-fu action of, say, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, or the explosive physical precision of Ip Man. But there’s something about the way The Assassin‘s faster-paced sequences are shot and staged that makes them seem almost apologetic. There are moments of visual splendour in The Assassin to make the eyes pop, but for this writer at least, little to make pulses pound or blood run cold in the veins. The Assassin is out in UK cinemas now.