Review of Hidden Blade / 无名, directed by Er Cheng

When Hidden Blade was first making its way around the American movie theaters, I was so sad I didn’t live in a city like New York. My local movie theater chains weren’t showing this movie at all, and I dreaded checking the app each Wednesday to see that it was definitely not coming to a theater near me.

My luck changed when I ended up flying to Malaysia for a three week long trip during my winter break. I was going to see my cousin, and had a very long flight/journey to get there.

It totaled to about 25 hours going and 40 hours coming home, and Etihad’s entertainment system is one of the few things that kept my sanity together during this time.

I absolutely loved their selection of Asian movies, especially considering I’ve never seen that on a flight before (but then again, I rarely travel internationally like this).

I was delighted to see Hidden Blade as an option on the entertainment system, so I sat back, pulled the top off of my delivered meal, and then started watching.

Here’s my review!

Resistance, espionage, and betrayal in the midst of Japanese colonization in 1930s and 1940s China.

This is a film set in China in the middle of the Japanese occupation, which isn’t the most lovely subject.

One of the movie’s opening scenes is about the bombing of the cities, and a group of soldiers literally send a dog out into the bombing that’s already clearly set to die. The protagonist, He, is in the group watching as the dog goes back out.

We then cut to Shanghai, in 1941. Pearl Harbor has not yet been bombed, and He has become the head of the Political Security Department, which is run by the Japanese. In order to keep his job, he does brutal jobs of torturing and killing people who take down anyone who opposes the status quo.

He, on the outside, appears to be loyal to Wang Jingwei, but he actually has ties to the Chinese Community Party, and he funnels information through their networks.

They’re all trying to take down the Japanese, and his wife, Ms. Chen, works alongside with him. Officer Watanabe is He’s superior, and he has his own group of men within his inner circle; he wants to rise through the ranks of the political party, ultimately gaining more power. However, he doesn’t think his men have the best of intentions.

He saves a spy, Ms. Jiang, and finds out some key information about a Japanese prince serving in the army. Peace talks all in the works between Japan and the regime, which would make the political situation more precarious.

The communist party then uses the information about the Japanese prince to kill him and his brigade, which ends any peace talk prospects and puts Watanabe in a bad position.

One member of his inner circle, Mr. Ye, breaks up with his girl, Ms. Fang. He kills a minister as a job, but soon after he discovers another member of the circle, Wang, raped and killed Ms. Fang. Wang disappears not long after this, and He falls under the suspicious gaze of Watanabe. Mr. Ye is selected as a double agent, and Pearl Harbor happens.

The regime declares war, and Shanghai is flooded by the Japanese military—they’re everywhere. Mr. Ye grows closer to Watanabe, who is realizing that Mr. Ye can help him.

He is found out and Mr. Ye is sent to kill him, and Ms. Chen is killed in the process. He is arrested and Mr. Ye is given a new job: he will be Watanabe’s secretary, and they venture off to Manchuria.

He is released upon the Japanese surrender in 1945, and he sees Watanabe and Mr. Ye in the prisoner truck coming into where he was held.

Watanabe tells Mr. Ye he no longer wants to pursue politics as everything has fallen apart, and he wants to become a farmer. Ye tells him he should die a Japanese officer, and we learn Ye was a double agent for the Communists the entire time.

He helped Manchuria fall from his position, and he kills Watanabe and reunites with He. He thanks him, and Ms. Chen is revealed to be alive.

The three of them move to Hong Kong, where they see Wang’s parents, who still think their son is alive. Eventually, He goes back to Shanghai and sees his wife’s old bakery, reminiscing about their lives before the war.

We then learn Mr. Ye killed Wang all those years ago.

Overall Thoughts

While this can be a difficult movie to get through at times, I will admit the plot keeps you on your toes. If I wasn’t on a flight and confined to my seat and a tiny piece of metal in the sky, though, I don’t know if I would have been able to watch this all the way through.

Japanese colonization is my jam, especially considering I did my master’s thesis on the women’s history side of things in colonial Korea, but this movie felt like it was missing a spark. I wanted more from it, and while it certainly had tension and action, I was getting bored.

The acting is fantastic though—I expected no less from the cast. I know someone out there enjoyed this, and they’re not wrong at all for it, as taste is subjective. Because I didn’t love it doesn’t mean you might not love it. Give it a chance.

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