Synopsis
Set in 19th Century Japan a young samurai who finds himself in love with a farm girl leaves his home to begin a new life. He has to take stock of his new life when he is put to the test and ordered to kill a traitor who just happens to be his dearest friend.
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Cast
- Masatoshi NagaseMunezô Katagiri
- Takako MatsuKie
- Hidetaka YoshiokaSamon Shimada
- Yukiyoshi OzawaYaichirô Hazama
- Tomoko TabataShino Katagiri
- Chieko BaishoMrs. Katagiri
- Kunie TanakaKanbê Katagiri
- Sachiko MitsumotoMrs. Iseya
- Reiko TakashimaHazama's Wife
- Nana SaitoBun
Recommendations
- 88
TV Guide Magazine
Casually paced and filled with telling detail, Yamada's delicate drama with swordplay (there's not much, but what there is packs an emotional wallop) transcends its specific setting in its depiction of Katagiri's internal struggle. - 83
Entertainment Weekly
The Hidden Blade is tranquil, touching, and, in its climactic sword fight, excitingly real. - 83
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
The restrained drama both punctures the mythic ideal of the samurai culture (trained as fighters, they mostly serve as clan bureaucrats) and spins a romantic portrait of one man who values principle over protocol despite the cost to his reputation. - 80
Village Voice
Yamada's decidedly undazzling yet expressive filmmaking approaches classicism, from a sensei training session captured in one lengthy shot to the final showdown, seen with shifting points of view that suggest a relativist unease with the cut-and-dried judgments of war culture. - 75
The A.V. Club
Builds slowly--maybe too slowly--to a mano-a-mano standoff, just like "The Twilight Samurai," and just like the earlier film, the new one presents its climactic swordfight matter-of-factly, with no superheroics and a lot of hesitation. - 75
New York Daily News
Both epic and intimate, this impassioned samurai drama is for anyone who's ever watched a movie and muttered, "They just don't make 'em like they used to." - 75
San Francisco Chronicle
Deeply affecting, "Blade'' portrays an oddly elegant way of life that will soon be like the era in that other movie, "Gone With the Wind." - 70
The New York Times
Though less powerful than Mr. Yamada's "Twilight Samurai" (2002), The Hidden Blade is an affecting portrait of the impact of profound change on people with limited options.
