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Hidden Blade chinese drama review
Completed
Hidden Blade
3 people found this review helpful
by Lyson
Apr 13, 2023
Completed
Overall 9.0
Story 8.5
Acting/Cast 9.5
Music 8.5
Rewatch Value 5.0
This review may contain spoilers

It's exactly what it says on the box. If you like the packaging, the movie will satisfy.

The movie trailer for this pretty clearly implied what it was about. Basically, it's about a small faction of people working together trying to gain the advantage to win a war/battle for their side. So that's on point. This particular genre is not for everyone, you either like this kind of story or you don't, so my review will not focus on the genre of film.

THE GOOD:
- The acting of the cast is very suitable to the style of the film. For example, one of the first scenes in the beginning, in the restaurant, did a great job of immediately showing the viewer the desensitized nature of the two men when it comes to violence by way of the conversation they're having. It was a good way to set the tone for both of the characters going forward, considering their violent actions in the film thereafter.
- The cinematography is also good, there isn't an excess of music either and the director and actors did well using nuance of facial expressions, pauses, silences, looks and some props in the scenes to maintain the tense, somber aura of the film content. The wardrobe department also did well.
- The dialogue is minimal but fairly intense in most scenes and is delivered well, which again, suits the film style.
- The fight scenes were pretty well choreographed and the cinematography also did well to make it seem more intense. The second fight scene was probably the highest 'action' point in the movie. As someone who enjoys fight scenes (action content), I enjoyed it.

THE (not so) BAD:
- I'm not a fan of non-linear story lines in movies. So the back and forth, out of sync sequence of events wasn't great. I can understand sometimes jumping back to show events that were intentionally meant to be misinterpreted or happened at the same time as other important moments, but sometimes it's not necessary and it has never appealed to me. This movie unnecessarily used it in some places.
- The fight scenes had some exaggerated hitting and impact sounds, which is very on brand for a Chinese film I suppose. However, it unfortunately sounded a bit silly because fighting doesn't sound like that and it's 2023 and everyone knows that.
- The film was predictable. It became obvious quite quickly that the small main cast group were infiltrating an enemy camp undercover, and even toward the end, despite the fight scene with his 'colleague', WY's character was obviously a double agent.

THE (possibly) UGLY:
- I don't like how genuinely 'stray' the animals used in the film appeared, and I can't read Chinese so if there was some notice to say no animals were harmed in the making of the film in the credits (like in western films), someone let me know.

HIGHLIGHT:
- No over all highlight in this one for me. Although, perhaps the fact that the characters constantly had me wondering if they were going to start killing each other was a highlight to the acting, they all felt like they were on the verge of violence in some form or another in almost every scene.

PERSONAL HIGHLIGHT:
- As a fan of Wang Yibo, I think he acted well in this. It's not to be overstated, he's not breaking any moulds, but it's also not be understated, because he does very well in his physical scenes and he also manages to emote intimidation and anger really well. His 'reaction' scenes and his fight scenes were enjoyable and I would definitely prefer to see him in more films like this, where he does more acting, tests his range and where he wears less make up. And let him play a bad guy/villain ffs, he has the face and demeanor for it.

Not bad. If you like this genre, I'd say try it,
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