re:mote voices

Title: The Hidden Blade
Cast: Masatoshi Nagase, Takako Matsu, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Yukiyoshi Ozawa, Tomoko Tabata
Director: Yôji Yamada

A low caste samurai finds that his life gets quiet all of a sudden. One of his best friends has gone off to find adventure, another has married his sister, his mother has died and the maid has been married off to a merchant family. He goes about his life, threadbare and lonely - until his adventurer friend comes back a traitor in chains and he discovers the maid, who he has always secretly loved, has been mistreated.

Of course, despite being a low caste samurai it is suggested that he and his traitor friend are the best fighters in the clan; perhaps he even knows the secrets of the deadly hidden blade? As such the senior samurai want him to deal with his friend. And while he can help his love, a samurai cannot marry a maid. So his life has gone from solitude to being problematic.

The Hidden Blade is 2005's cinematic samurai film for the UK. Following on from the success of the previous year's The Twilight Samurai. The fact that The Hidden Blade is directed by Yoji Yamada, who did The Twilight Samurai, should be obvious to anyone seeing the two films - since they are essentially the same film. Both following low caste samurai, down on their luck, at a period of growing westernisation and political turmoil, who fall for women that they shouldn't.

Between the two Twilight Samurai is the better film - partly because you are seeing it done there first, and partly because the titular samurai is a more interesting character, with more depth and conviction. The introduction of guns/cannon, and disciplined marching in a western style is what really gives The Hidden Blade any kind of edge - describing a real turning point in a cultural age, while also providing some light relief in an other wise down beat film.