Hidden Blade is now playing in select theatres.Cinema Guild Takes North America For Berlinale Encounters Winner 'Here' Rediance Unveils Asian Deals Hidden Blade is no spectacle, but at least Tony Leung is in it, right? Right? Too bad it’s not as visually exciting as The Battle of Lake Changjin, which saw three of China’s best filmmakers, Tsui Hark, Chen Kaige, and Dante Lam, do propaganda with enough style to make it feel like a spectacle. Instead, it happens too little too late and strolls to its non-eventful ending, revealing how it glorifies the Communists as the real heroes of the story. That sequence should’ve happened early in the movie to hold the audience’s attention. Still, the most exciting setpieces start as a handgun fight until it transforms into a brawl that goes more intense as it progresses to its final moments. Quick action flourishes keep us on our toes, particularly a fight scene where Yibo topples Japanese soldiers in a hallway. It’s when Hidden Blade deftly picks up the pace after fragmented sequences filled with uninteresting dialogues. Leung’s performance proves why his power as an actor remains unmatched, especially during the film’s thrilling one-on-one fight scene between him and Yibo. The way his glare can mean so many different emotions simultaneously is the stuff only a few actors have accomplished in the history of cinema and television (Shah Rukh Khan, James Gandolfini, Channing Tatum, Takashi Shimura, Cary Grant, to name just a few). None of the actors can match the level of charm Leung can, but he’s in a class of his own. Aside from Leung, there are heavily caricatured performances from Wang Yibo, Huang Lei, Hiroyuki Mori, and Da Peng. Still, the movie does compellingly structure its story, but the script could be much better. RELATED: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania Review – Marvel Begins A New Dynasty Tony Leung Chiu-wai is one of the greatest actors who ever graced the screen As if it wasn’t apparent to anyone that you weren’t watching a state-approved film, Hidden Blade’s finale makes it obvious. He responds, “because she was a Communist.” The other character pulls out his gun, points it to the killer’s head, and says, “So am I.” Cut to black. One completely inane scene happens during the tail end of the movie, where a character asks another why he had to kill someone. Hidden Blade is another “Chinese Victory” film, making it part of an unofficial trilogy where the Communists emerged victorious, and the stereotypically evil Japanese got what they ultimately deserved. These include Chinese Doctors, which celebrates the Chinese frontline workers’ heroism during the COVID-19 pandemic, even if some of them were muzzled by the CCP for sounding the alarm on the virus before the World Health Organization declared it a pandemic, and the two-parter The Battle at Lake Changjin. However, Polybona films have produced propaganda through their “Chinese Victory” films. I don’t try to use the word “propaganda” in any reviews because it’s a word that has been weaponized by the right whenever they describe anything that is slightly progressive. RELATED: Juniper Review: A Poignant and Direct Story About Loss and Human Connection
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