Highly recommend movie “Hidden Blade”.
Epic. This movie will be mentioned and remembered in 10,30,50 and even 100 years.
“The best movie I’ve watched on World War II”.
Or on war, or on history, period.
There are 4 dog actors in the movie. So real and authentic. I believe this is the core message of the director/script writer/editor Cheng Er（程耳）: we human individuals are not much different from these dogs—-our each little decision is framed in the much bigger torrent of history that we actually, alas, have little insight nor foresight, not to mention control.
For many Western audience it may be hard to follow cause there are 4 political parties and everyone is a spy pretending to be someone else:
1.Japanese army invading China from 1937-1945;
2.Nationalist government (official government of China at the time of the movie 1937-1946, President Chiang Kai-shek蒋介石 later was one of the founders of United Nation together with US, UK, Soviet, and France). It overthrew Qing Dynasty and established first republic in China albeit had not fully united China from regional warlords. Its inaction after Japanese took over Manchuria in 1932 (3 northern provinces of China), disappointed and angered many, including its own party members.
3. Underground Chinese communist party: first trying to overthrow the nationalist government by violence because it’s corrupted and weak in front of Japanese invasion. After Japanese invasion, it also tried to fight against Japanese by assassination and spy. It is funded and supported by Soviet Communist Government and considered itself an overseas branch of Soviet Communist and Soviet Government.
4. Puppet Chinese Government led by Wang Jingwei (汪精卫) in Nanking who cooperated with Japanese army. They were hated by 2 & 3 and any other resistance forces more than Japanese army because as stated in the movie “past enemy can be forgiven but betrayal of one’s friend, never”. Yet within this puppet government, many Chinese deep down didn’t like Japanese invasion. Main characters of Hidden Blade are the secret agent working for 4.
Given how little Pacific Theatre in WWII was mentioned in US history classes, it is also a good education for school kids.
On Battleship USS Iowa, I saw an American general’s words “I hate war as much as only someone who has been to a war can.”
Director Cheng, never been in actual war, must have achieved same conclusion through reading and thinking.
He stays at home mostly and still writes his script by hand.
He has directed only 4 movies so far.
War turns ordinary people into monsters that includes everyone.
I have not gone to cinema for years cause most Hollywood movies are a waste of my time. The last straw for me was when a highlight scene in Great Gastby (2013) used fake(!) orchid… When orchids cost $10 wholesale in 2013, you are trying to portrait “gilded American era” when orchids used to cost $500?! The whole point of having those orchids is for the “smell of money.” You might as well skip that orchid scene altogether instead of using plastic polyester ones made in Dongwan, China.
No integrity. Nobody in the whole crew cared, director, set artists, and stars paid in millions. That’s the problem of Hollywood after 2000.
In Hidden Blade, every piece of Napoleons was not only real but baked by the best bakery in Shanghai, within hours. Every dish of food was real. I could tell in the cinema and it was confirmed in news.
Why Napoleon? Maybe because it is the only pastry named after a war figure? Maybe because their are so many hidden layers underneath with contradictory textures?
How about we humans channel our ambition and energy and anger into making something so darn good that your “enemy” has to come up with something just as good? Such as movies, savory dishes and sweet pastries, or a fierce International Lego competition?
I, if I am allowed, is here to pray for world peace.
2/26/2023
4/13/2023
80-20 