Hidden Delight

The Hidden Blade (4.5/5 stars)

The Hidden Blade is the story of a Samurai named Munezo Katagiri during the time period in the 1800s when Japan was first beginning to realize that it needed to abandon the old ways and catch up with the rest of the world's technology. More than this though, it is a story about conflicts created by honor, caste systems, and forbidden love.

The movie begins with two Samurai friends (Munezo, and another named Samon Shimada) seeing their friend Yaichiro Hazama off, as he has been awarded an important and prestigious post in the city of Edo. From here, we go back to Munezo's house and we learn that Samon is to marry Munezo's sister, and we meet the Munezo's maid, Kie, whom we learn through narration gets married off as well. It is clear from the beginning that Munezo is in love with Kie, however class barriers (he is a Samurai, she is a mere maid) prevent their relationship from coming to fruitition. We are told that three years pass by, and the story picks up from there by revisiting each character. Munezo is now all alone, as his mother has passed away.

Now the Samurais are in the process of learning the technology of firearm usage; their breed is not long for this world. There are several scenes in the movie showing the training of the Samurai that are absolutely hilarious and provide an excellent change of pace from the drama of the rest of the story. Kie it turns out, has been married into a very cruel family, while Yachiro Hazama has been accused of traitorious acts and imprisoned. The main arcs are about Munezo's struggle to keep his integrity amongst the class conflicts, corrupt leaders, and changes times. The eventually story revolves around freeing Kie from her poor situation and later their unobtainable love, as well as the eventual conflict between Munezo and his friend the traitor, who eventually escapes and must be dealt with by order of the ruling Samurai clan.

This was a nice change of pace from the most recent movies (The Twilight Samurai being the one exception, by the same director) about Samurais. It has little action; most of the movie is spent on the relationships between the various characters, and the human element is very refreshing, especially the subdued interaction between Munezo and Kie. Also what is excellent about this are the surprising amount of comedic sequences. In this way it reminds me a little bit of The Hidden Fortress, by the legend Akira Kurasawa, by being able to include comedy in a movie of this genre without going into outright parody as some movies (like Kung Fu Hustle) do. To top it off, the movie is quite beautiful, with wonderful cinematography and gorgeous scenery.

Judging from the theater where I saw it, it won't be getting a wide release and won't stay in theaters very long, but it is definitely something to keep on your radar for DVD in the future.