Mark Reviews Movies: HIDDEN BLADE

Hidden Blade, Well Go USA

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Review by Mark Dujsik | February 16, 2023

To attempt to follow the plot of Hidden Blade is difficult and, essentially, a fool's errand. It's difficult, maybe more so for members of a Western audience, because the story takes place in China during World War II, and writer/director Cheng Er presumes a fair amount of knowledge about the politics, alliances, and organizations that exist within this time and place.

Any amount of knowledge about the setting would likely be irrelevant and not especially helpful, though, because Cheng's primary goal is to keep us unaware of the politics, alliances, and loyalties of his characters for as long as possible. The foggy, uncommunicated background information doesn't seem like a misstep, in other words. It's a vital function of a movie that's so busy trying to fool us that it feel as if it forgets to tell its story.

The main characters are He (Tony Leung) and Ye (Wang YiBo), native Chinese agents working within the government of an occupying Japanese government and a collaborating Chinese one. After surviving the initial attacks and bombing raids by the Japanese military, the two men are now the best at rooting out hidden foes, uncovering secret information and documentation, and keeping track of a Communist Party that is gaining influence.

This, perhaps, is where any plot summary should end—not only because so much of the ensuing plotting depends upon hidden allegiances and true motives coming to light, but also because Cheng's screenplay never allows us to gain our bearings as to what's happening, who these characters are, or what the stakes could be. The movie itself begins at some point in the future of its narrative, before flashing back several years and returning to 1941, as Japan is about to become embroiled in a war on multiple fronts and its imperial government wants Manchuria to stand as an enforced barrier against the Soviet Union.

Really, though, the plot gradually reveals that He might have other intentions, while Ye might become his foe—unless he has something else up his sleeve, too. Because of the current governmental and political situation in China, none of these revelations come as much of a surprise, of course (The whole venture is naked propaganda). The only real surprise is how Cheng literally waits until the last second of the movie to bluntly state information that has been apparent long before that moment.

The narrative, then, is inherently a mess, because Cheng is more concerned with obfuscation than clarity and comprehension. On the positive side, Hidden Blade is stylish in its period details and its noir-influenced look, and one action sequence is admirably flexible in its staging. Mostly, this is a movie that doesn't establish or develop nearly enough, because to do so would be to give away the deceitful game that makes up its entire existence.

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