Beijing — It has been eight years since the Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s last feature-length film, the elliptical “Flight of the Red Balloon” starring Juliette Binoche, opened the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes International Film Festival.

北京——台湾导演侯孝贤的上一部长片是八年前朱丽叶·比诺什(Juliette Binoche)主演的《红气球之旅》，它风格简洁，曾在戛纳国际电影节上充当“一种关注”单元的开幕影片。

During this time, the renowned¹ arthouse director dedicated² much of his energy to building up the independent cinema scene at home in Taiwan, serving as chairman of both the Taipei Film Festival and the executive committee of the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival.

在这期间，这位著名艺术导演花费大量精力，在家乡台湾扶植独立电影场景，此外他还出任台北电影节主席和台北金马电影节执行委员会主席。

But Mr. Hou, 68, said there was another reason for his prolonged absence: He was recreating the Tang Dynasty.

但是68岁的侯孝贤说，他之所以那么长时间没有新作，另一个原因是他忙于重现唐朝的情景。

In a Skype interview from Taipei last week, Mr. Hou spoke³ of the painstaking⁴ research efforts undertaken for his newest film, “The Assassin,” a Tang Dynasty-era martial⁵ arts epic⁶ set to premiere on May 21 at the 68th annual Cannes festival.

上个星期，侯孝贤在台北通过Skype接受了采访，谈起他为新片《刺客聂隐娘》所做的艰苦的研究工作。这是一部以唐朝为背景的武侠史诗片，将于5月21日在第68届戛纳电影节上首映。

The film, which features the actress Shu Qi in the title role, is the director’s seventh film to compete for the Palme d’Or, the festival’s top prize. Previously⁷, Mr. Hou took home the Jury Prize for his 1993 film “The Puppetmaster,” the second in his trilogy of films dealing⁸ with modern Taiwanese history.

主角聂隐娘由舒淇饰演，该片是侯孝贤第七次角逐戛纳电影节最高奖金棕榈奖。1993年，他的《戏梦人生》一片曾经获得评审团大奖，该片是他以现代台湾历史为背景的三部曲系列电影中的第二部。

Based on a popular legendary⁹ tale from the Tang Dynasty, “The Assassin” or “Nie Yinniang” in Chinese, takes place in the year 809 and tells the story of a young girl who is kidnapped by a nun¹⁰ and eventually trained to become a skilled assassin (Ms. Shu).

刺客聂隐娘》根据一则广受欢迎的唐代传奇故事改编，它发生在809年，讲述一个被尼姑拐走的女孩慢慢被训练成职业杀手（舒淇饰演）。

After failing a mission, she is sent by her master back to her hometown, 13 years after she was taken away, and is given a new target: the most powerful military governor in the North, a man who also happens to be both her cousin and her childhood love (played by Chang Chen).

一次执行任务失败后，她被主人送回阔别13年的家乡，执行一项新任务：刺杀中国北部最有权力的武将，他正好是她的表哥和童年时代的恋人（张震饰）。

The film represents the first foray into the traditional martial arts genre¹¹ for Mr. Hou, who first rose to prominence¹² in the 1980s as a key figure in the New Taiwan Cinema movement. He is best known for his layered meditations¹³ on Taiwanese identity within the context of the island’s turbulent 20th-century history.

这是侯孝贤第一次挑战传统武侠片。他在20世纪80年代成名，是台湾新电影运动中的重要人物，他擅长把对台湾人身份认同的多重思考置于该岛20世纪动荡不安的历史背景之中，这是他的影片最为人熟知的特点。

“I’ve always had a dream to make this story into a film. I first came across the Tang Dynasty legendary tales when I was in university studying film and before that I had read many wuxia stories when I was a child,” Mr. Hou said, referring to China’s rich tradition of martial arts stories. “But I could never make the film because it required such a large amount of financing.”

“我总是梦想着能把这个故事拍成电影。我第一次读到唐传奇故事是在大学学电影的时候，小时候我还看过不少武侠小说。”侯孝贤提起中国武侠故事的丰富传统，“但这部电影一直没能拍成，因为需要大量资金。”

Now, a string of internationally acclaimed¹⁴ films later, Mr. Hou has less difficulty finding investors¹⁵. With a budget of around $14 million, “The Assassin” is the director’s biggest production to date. Costs were split between Sil-Metropole Organization, a Hong Kong production company, and Mr. Hou’s film studio, 3H Productions.

如今，在拍出了一系列享誉国际的电影之后，侯孝贤终于可以不那么费力地找到投资者了。《刺客聂隐娘》的预算大约在1400万美元，是他目前为止最大手笔的制作。这笔钱由香港制片公司银都机构有限公司与侯孝贤自己的电影工作室3H Productions分摊。

In taking on a wuxia film, Mr. Hou is joining a growing number of commercial and arthouse directors from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Prominent examples from recent years include Ang Lee’s “Crouching¹⁶ Tiger Hidden Dragon” (2000), Zhang Yimou’s “Hero” (2002), and Wong Kar-Wai’s “The Grandmaster” (2013). Even Jia Zhangke, China’s top independent film director, is said to be preparing a big-budget martial arts film. (In the meantime, Mr. Jia’s latest film “Mountains May Depart,” his first to be filmed partly outside of China (in Australia), will be competing alongside “The Assassin” at this year’s festival.)

中国大陆、香港与台湾的不少商业与艺术导演都拍过武侠片，其中近年来的著名例子包括李安的《卧虎藏龙》(2000)、张艺谋的《英雄》(2002)以及王家卫的《一代宗师》(2013)，如今侯孝贤也加入了他们的行列。就连中国顶尖的独立电影导演贾樟柯也说自己正在筹划拍摄一部高成本的武侠片（与此同时，贾樟柯的新片《山河故人》将与《刺客聂隐娘》一同在今年的戛纳电影节上展开角逐。影片有一部分在澳大利亚拍摄，是贾樟柯首次在中国以外的地方拍片）。

Still, Mr. Hou’s decision to make a martial arts film has aroused interest among followers¹⁷ of his work, many of whom are wondering whether he has abandoned his signature contemplative style for high-intensity subject matter.

但是，侯孝贤拍摄武侠片的决定仍然令影迷们非常感兴趣，很多人都在猜测，为了拍摄这种高度紧张刺激的主题，他是否会放弃自己招牌的沉思风格。

“It’s hard to imagine a director with Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s particular style — distant camera, slow takes and long takes — doing a wuxia film, which is very fast-cutting,” said Shelly Kraicer, a film critic in Toronto who is a scholar of Chinese cinema. “It has to be a different procedure for him, so it’ll be fascinating to see a director of his stature¹⁸ approach this experiment.”

“很难想像侯孝贤这种喜欢使用远景、慢镜头和长镜头的导演会去拍快节奏的武侠片，”多伦多影评人兼中国电影研究者谢莉·克莱瑟(Shelly Kraicer)说。“这对他来说肯定是一段完全不同的经历，但是看到声望这样高的导演来做这种尝试，还是挺刺激的。”

Mr. Hou, who began working on the screenplay in 2012, said that it would be different from other directors’ wuxia films and that he had remained true to his long-established approach.

侯孝贤自2012年开始为该片撰写剧本，他说这部影片和其他导演的武侠片都不相同，他仍会保持自己长久以来的一贯风格。

“I rarely do costume pictures,” he said. “The Tang Dynasty element will be very new but I think people will see that my filming process is the same. It’s still long takes and a static camera. The actors have just changed their clothes and altered their accents a little.”

“我很少拍古装片，”他说。“唐朝元素非常新鲜，但我想人们会发现我的拍摄手法还是一样的。仍然是长镜头和固定机位。演员们只是变了衣服，变了一点口音。”

He added that he made minimal¹⁹ use of computer-generated effects. “I didn’t want the actors to be flying here or there,” he said, referring to the acrobatic feats²⁰ in wuxia films like “Crouching Tiger.” “There’s essentially²¹ no flying.”

他还说，片中他尽量没有使用电脑特效。“我不希望演员们飞来飞去，”他指的是《卧虎藏龙》等武侠片里那些杂技般的武打场面。“片子里根本就没有飞来飞去。”

Hwarng Wern-Ying, the film’s production and costume designer and a veteran member of Mr. Hou’s creative team, said this time around Mr. Hou seemed even more meticulous²² in his attention to detail than she had seen in the past.

影片的制作人与服装设计师是侯孝贤创作团队内的资深成员黄文英， 她说，和以往相比，这一次侯孝贤甚至更加谨慎小心地对待细节。

“He might film only one scene in one day, and then he would film that scene five or six times in one week,” she said. “Then a few months later he’d ask us to go back and film that same scene again but I had already dismantled²³ the set.”

“他可能一天只拍一场戏，整个一周都拍这场戏，重复五六次，”她说。“然后再过几个月，他会让我们回过头来，把这场戏再拍一次，但我都已经把布景拆了。”

Mr. Hou said that he endeavored to make the film as realistic as possible, a culmination²⁴, he said, of several years of scrupulous²⁵ research into historical accounts of the Tang Dynasty, which ruled China from 618 to 906. It is often referred to as the “golden age” of Chinese civilization, a time when trade and culture flourished and Chang’an, the cosmopolitan²⁶ dynastic capital, was the largest city in the world.

侯孝贤说，他竭尽全力让这部电影尽可能写实，这是他花费几年时间悉心研究唐朝历史的结果。唐王朝于公元618至906年统治着中国，经常被视为中国文明的“黄金时代”，贸易和文化极为繁荣昌盛，其首都长安是世界上最大的城市。

“Everyone has a different understanding of what the Tang Dynasty was like and I think this film will be a very pure representation of Hou’s vision of that time,” Ms. Hwarng said.

“每个人都有自己对唐朝的理解，我觉得这部电影把侯孝贤心目中的那个时代纯粹地呈现出来了，”黄文英说。

In the film, the actors speak classical Chinese, a decision Mr. Hou said he made to enhance the period feel. The language also turned out to be the “biggest challenge” during the filmmaking process, said the director, since classical Chinese was mostly used for literary texts and almost never spoken. The final version includes Chinese subtitles²⁷.

片中演员们都用古汉语说话，侯孝贤说，这是为了增强历史感。他说，最后古文对白成了影片拍摄过程中“最大的挑战”，因为古汉语目前已经不在口语中使用，只出现在文学当中。最终影片会有中文字幕。

Admirers of Mr. Hou’s work may be pleased to know that the director does not plan to wait another eight years to make his next film.

侯孝贤说，他的新片不会再让人们等上八年之久，这个消息无疑会令影迷们感到高兴。

“There are so many movies I want to make,” he said. “Even just in terms of Taiwan’s history the possibilities are endless.” He added that he was already in talks to make a film about the Taiwanese Communist Party under Japanese and later Kuomintang rule.

“我想拍的片子还有很多，”他说，“光是在台湾历史范围内就有无穷无尽的可能性。”他还说，他已经开始筹备一部新片，是关于日本乃至国民党统治时期的台湾共产党。