Chinese film ‘Hidden Blade’ artfully blends noir and nationalism
“Hidden Blade,” a stylish, nonlinear exercise in Chinese film noir set in the world of spy vs. spy subterfuge in 1930s/1940sera Shanghai, is one of those movies where, at first, you’re not exactly sure where it’s going or what anyone’s doing. But, boy, do they look great doing it.
Directed by Er Cheng, with an almost painterly sense of composition, and starring the always reliable Tony Chiu-Wei Leung (“In the Mood for Love,” “Chungking Express,” “Hard-Boiled”), “Hidden Blade” is an exquisitely made, well-acted and subtle period-piece thriller that takes place in a China being thrown into chaos by the invading Japanese, the nationalist Chinese government and the revolutionary communists.
Leung is Mr. He, an agent, interrogator and assassin, working for the Japanese government in China, who is assisted by Mr. Ye (an excellent Yibo Wang) and Mr. Tang (Chengpeng Dong), but events may be cascading in a direction where they are not all on the same side.
The film starts very slowly but ramps up in its final hour with a mano-amano fight scene that proves worth the wait.
Despite “Hidden Blade” being the third film in the “China Victory Trilogy” — a series that also includes “Chinese Doctors” (set in Wuhan at the outbreak of COVID-19) and “The Battle of Lake Changjin” (set in the Korean War) — and presumably needing the Chinese government’s stamp of approval to get made, the film doesn’t feel heavily propagandistic. Thankfully, this isn’t “Wolf Warrior.”
Unless, of course, you consider looking really cool to be propaganda.