Contents

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents v
3. Illustrations vii
4. Character Chart ix
5. Chronicle of Major Events in the Film Story before the Film Begins x
6. Map of the Tang after the An Lushan Rebellion (763) xi
7. Acknowledgments xv
8. Introduction 1
9. Section 1: The Auteur Speaking and Auteurism Revisited
10. 1. The Screen Frame Is Only a Faintly Discernable Existence in the Real World: An Interview with Hou Hsiao-hsien and Xie Haimeng by Yang Zhao 17
11. 2. To Kill or Not to Kill: Auteurism and Storytelling 40
12. Section 2: Literary and Film Adaptation and Editing
13. 3. The Assassin and Heibai Wei: Two Dramatic Adaptations of “Nie Yinniang” 57
14. 4. The Assassin as Adaptation and Transmedia Practice 72
15. Section 3: Sight and Sound
16. 5. Visuality and Music in The Assassin: The Tang World Recreated 87
17. 6. The Three Ears of The Assassin 99
18. 7. Veiled Listening: The Assassin as an Eavesdropper 114
19. 8. Sounding against the Grain: Music, Voice, and Noise in The Assassin 133
20. Section 4: Xia and Traditional Worldviews
21. 9. The Martial Arts of Nostalgia: Sentimentalism and Modernity Overcome in The Assassin 145
22. 10. Ethics and Aesthetics in The Assassin 161
23. 11. The Something of Nothing: Buddhism and The Assassin 178
24. Appendix 1: Pei Xing, “Nie Yinniang” 195
25. Appendix 2: “Nie Yinniang” 197
26. Filmography 202
27. Works Cited 205
28. Contributors 222
29. Index 224