The Assassin is a 2015 wuxia film co-written and directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien. A Taiwan/China/Hong Kong co-production, the film is loosely based on the late seventh-century martial arts story "Nie Yinniang" by Pei Xing. It stars Shu Qi and Chang Chen.

Hou Hsiao-hsien is a retired Mainland Chinese-born Taiwanese film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. He is a leading figure in world cinema and in Taiwan's New Wave cinema movement. He won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1989 for his film A City of Sadness (1989), and the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2015 for The Assassin (2015). Other highly regarded works of his include The Puppetmaster (1993) and Flowers of Shanghai (1998).