The Hidden Blade Movie Review:


To follow up his masterful The Twilight Samurai (2002), Yamada tells another tale of everyday life during the waning years of samurai society. It's beautifully observed, with strong characters and a lovely romantic plot, although it's as a bit too subdued.

Munezo (Nagase) is a low-level samurai who's never drawn his sword and is in love with the sparky Kie (Matsu), from the wrong caste and therefore impossible to consider as a wife. When a friend (Ozawa) is involved in a rebellion against the Westernisation of the Japanese forces, Munezo is ordered by his boss (Ogata) to sort it out. So Munezo revisits his old sensei (Tanaka) to find out how to engage in a real battle to the death, and to remember the secret of the hidden blade.

The story is rich and layered, with evocative interaction between the characters. Even if the time and culture are alien to us, we identify with these people. And the pressure to Westernise with guns instead of swords is both fascinating and eerily relevant (the new teacher complains bitterly about these "stupid, back-country samurai"--"Don't stop to bow when you're loading a cannon!"). Performances are raw and natural, as the characters tease each other mercilessly, try to balance honour against betrayal and attempt to find happiness within a restrictive society.

Yamada beautifully avoids the flowery density of most period dramas for a more authentic design. The story is similarly organic, resisting Western structures to find a real story that has moments of incredible action and romance, but not when we expect them. And certainly not how we expect the scenes to play out. Nothing is heightened at all--it's played out in a way that feels utterly true.

And this risky approach is also a weakness, because we're so conditioned to narrative drive that the film feels rather lifeless. But it's worth sticking with for a remarkably faithful, unadorned story that's thoughtful and funny, insightful and powerfully moving. The intense personal dilemmas are strongly sympathetic, the action is pure and unforced, and the romance rolls along at a wonderfully unfussy pace. Gorgeous.



Rich Cline

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