Film Review: the Hidden Blade

Film Review: the Hidden Blade
Tue Feb 15, 2005 9:40 PM ET

By Kirk Honeycutt

BERLIN (Hollywood Reporter) - Yoji Yamada's "The Hidden Blade"
continues the themes, settings and depiction of samurai heroism he
so brilliantly developed in his last film, "The Twilight Samurai"
(2002). A graceful pace allows Yamada to explore fully the life of a
lower-caste samurai in a rural fiefdom, where money is always in
short supply and clan pressures lurk just outside his compound.
Yamada again turns to the short stories of Shuhei Fujisawa to draw
an indelible portrait of a solitary samurai with an unyielding code
of honor and dignity that never will allow him to stray even for a
moment into disgrace.

As with "Twilight Samurai," which earned international appreciation
and an Oscar nomination for best foreign-language film, "The Hidden
Blade" will do well in urban specialty venues in many markets.

Structurally, the two films are remarkably similar. (Yamada wrote
this screenplay with Yoshitaka Asama.) In the first act, a samurai
(Masatoshi Nagase) must rescue a woman (Takako Matsu) being abused
in her married life. The second act witnesses an unspoken love bloom
between these two even as the samurai's loyalty is called into
question by corrupt superiors.

The third act contains a dual to the death between the samurai, who
never has killed, and a man the clan has ordered him to kill. This
time, the opponent is a friend and brother samurai (Yukiyoshi
Ozawa), whose life he does not wish to take.

This new story takes place at the moment in the mid-19th century
when European weaponry and military strategies are imported into
Japan's conservative, feudal society. Much of this is played for
comedy as soldiers awkwardly struggle to understand rifles, cannons
and alien military training so at odds with the old-school methods
of sword and knife. Yet you sense a kind of moral corruption has
entered Japanese society, too, ushered in by these new and
impersonal weapons.

The hero in both stories is virtually the same man, who very much
represents the old school. His unswerving righteous might be boring
were it not so fascinating to watch the samurai maneuver in a
difficult society where divided loyalties and easy corruption litter
his daily path. Similarly, the beauty and purity of the heroine
might come off as bland were it not so touching to watch the
mistreated woman blossom in the samurai's warm and caring household.

Yamada has performed a minor miracle with these two samurai films:
He has managed a portrait of goodness and virtue that is neither
cynical nor contrived. The director clearly believes in the samurai
spirit and code. By reviving it on the screen with such empathy,
Yamada demonstrates the true complexity of a simple life lived well.

This is a marvelously produced film from its quiet appreciation for
the countryside to the minute details in its interior design. A
mostly Western-style music score by Isao Tomita skillfully
intertwines the classic with the intimate.

Cast: Munezo Katagiri: Masatoshi Nagase; Kie: Takako Matsu; Samon
Shimada: Hidetaka Yoshioka; Yaichiro Hazama: Yukiyoshi Ozawa, Shino:
Tomoko Tabata.

Director: Yoji Yamada; Screenwriters: Yoji Yamada, Yoshitaka Asama;
Based on stories by: Shuhei Fujisawa; Producer: Junichi Sakomoto,
Takeo Hisamatsu, Hiroshi Fukasawa, Ichiro Yamamoto; Director of
photography: Mutsuo Naganuma; Music: Isao Tomita; Costumes: Kazuko
Kurosawa; Editor: Iwao Ishii.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter