侯孝賢導演的《刺客聶隱娘》改編自唐朝傳奇小說中裴鉶的作品，完成他拍攝武俠電影的心願，並在坎城影展奪得最佳導演獎，為自己的導演事業推至另一高峰，再度證明他是台灣電影的指標性人物。擁有影展得獎光環的《刺客聶隱娘》，上映之後觀眾對該片華美的攝影影像讚賞有加，但對於劇情書寫卻有看不懂的議論。本文嘗試以「熱的文本、冷的影像」來探索該片的影像和文本書寫之間所造成的差距，並企圖印證觀眾不懂《刺客聶隱娘》的電影影像情節乃是侯孝賢導演在其一貫的寫實影像風格之下，強調電影美學是影像化，疏離了文本戲劇性結構的結果。

Hou Hsiao-Hsien's film, Assassin, which was adapted from Pe Hsien's work in Tang Dynasty legend, was made Hou Hsiao-Hsien's dream come true to complete photograph Wu-Xia Film. The film, the Best Director Award in Festival de Cannes, was created another top for Hou's director career and was proved that he was sure to be representative in Taiwan film again. The audiences admired Assassin's resplendent image, but they could not understand its story when the film was come to the screen. The study was tried to explore the differences between the image and writing on the film and was intended to get the result that the audiences could not understand Assassin's story, because Hou Hsiao-Hsien emphasized the imagination of the cinematic aesthetics and alienated the dramatic structure in the film.