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'The Hidden Blade' review by MartialHorror.


http://freewebs.com/mhhib

THE HIDDEN BLADE(2004)
(Directed by Yoji Yamada)

"Odd title, as the hidden blade technique plays a vague, minor part in the movie."- Signed by MartialHorror.

Plot: A low class samurai struggles with his feelings for a peasant woman and learns that he may be forced to fight his old friend, who has betrayed their country.

Review:

“The Hidden Blade” is definitely the kind of movie you want to avoid if you’re expecting a samurai action film. Not only is it a samurai drama, it has even less action than most samurai dramas. I can admire a samurai drama. I loved “When the Last Sword was Drawn”, “Rashomon”, and many more. But I have to admit, my preference is for action and “The Hidden Blade” has less action than both of those films. It’s not fair to criticize a movie for this, but the title does sound like it belongs to an action film. Luckily, at least it succeeds at being a good drama, although the movie still isn’t as great as people tend to say it is. But I can see why people love it, even if I don't.

The story follows Katagiri(Masatoshi Nagase), a low class samurai who doesn’t enjoy fighting. He is secretly in love with Kie(Takako Matsu), a servant who ends up marrying some merchant. The merchant abuses her and Katagiri rescues her. Despite their obvious feelings, their class differences make an actual relationship impossible. But unfortunately for Katagiri, he’s learned than an old friend, Hazama(Yukiyoshi Ozawa), has been arrested for treason. Hazama escapes and openly challenges the Government while holding some peasants hostage. Katagiri is ordered to kill him, but will he be able to?


This obviously sounds like it could make for a decent action film, but it’s not. The whole Hazama subplot happens late in the movie and the result is that the structure feels too slow paced. Little seems to happen, despite the movies 2+ hours of length. But what keeps it from being flat out boring is that the characters are easy to become attached too. I sympathized with everybody, from our main couple, to Katagiri’s sister, to his friend, to even that poor guy who has to train country samurai in the art of using firearms. Oh yeah, the movie does have a subplot/theme about how the samurai ways are becoming obsolete. The clash of old vs new might seem irrelevant to some, but it makes Katagiri's plight more effective. It’s a nice touch, and fit’s the setting well.

But my main problem with the movie has to be that it reminded me way too much of “Twilight Samurai” in tone, structure, and even plot. Both movies are about samurai- who despite being skilled, don’t like to fight- struggling against the times and are forced to kill long after they’ve decided not to do it again. The only difference is that “Twilight Samurai” focuses on the mans relationship with his daughters while “The Hidden Blade” focuses on the forbidden love. They’re filmed and photographed alike, and as I said: The tone is identical. Granted, this just might be because both films are directed by Yoji Yamada, although I didn’t know that while I was watching this. The result though is that this movie feels almost redundant. “Twilight Samurai” did just about everything here first and it did it better.

But I can’t deny how well made the movie is. The directing, photography, score and acting are all top notch. The emotions hit hard and I found myself caring about every event and even every scene. As I said, it does work as a drama. But I turned off the DVD feeling like I had just watched a lesser version of “Twilight Samurai”. As that is a great movie, at least "The Hidden Blade" is borrowing from the top. But that is a great drama, this one is a good drama.

Violence: There is some near the end.

Nudity: Sex is mentioned. Nothing explicit.

Overall: If you’re into samurai dramas, or liked “Twilight Samurai”, then you should give this a shot. But avoid if you’re expecting an action film.

2.5/4 Stars

my reviews of martial arts and horror films
http://freewebs.com/martialhorror



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Its seems pointless for you to review this movie since you only seem to like action movies.

You say that "The directing, photography, score and acting are all top notch. The emotions hit hard and I found myself caring about every event and even every scene." and yet you give this movie only a 2.5 out of four because they didn't show enough decapitations and because it is similar to Twilight Samurai. Are you not capable of judging a film on it's merits?

Good Grief.

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I knew nothing about the film nor its director and was expecting the usual fare, but what I got surprisingly for the majority of the film was a gently appealing, romantic drama. Yamada's evocation of a highly structured society is exquisite with a concentration on social rituals and settings and the narrow range of freedoms they permit, contrasting with the high levels of loyalty and obedience expected of the lower castes to their superiors.

Yamada certainly has an unhurried relaxed style observing the interaction of the characters, which does require some attention, but IMO audiences may well be rewarded with a deeply felt portrait of 19th century Japanese rural life.

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