ReviewHidden Blade movie review: Tony Leung excels opposite Wang Yibo as a conflicted intelligence agent in Cheng Er’s stylish wartime spy thriller

Tony Leung puts in a memorable performance as He, a morally torn intelligence leader rooting out Communists for the Japanese during the second Sino-Japanese war

The Shanghai-set film’s award-worthy production design contributes to an engaging spy story full of back-stabbing, back-alley rendezvous, twists and revelations

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Tony Leung (centre) in a still from Hidden Blade (category TBC), directed by Cheng Er and co-starring Wang Yibo and Zhou Xun.

Published: 6:15pm, 16 Feb 2023

4/5 stars

Set in Japanese-occupied Shanghai at the height of the second Sino-Japanese war (1937-45), Cheng Er’s Hidden Blade is a stylish, noir-infused spy thriller starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Wang Yibo and Zhou Xun.

The film charts the efforts of the Imperial Japanese Army and Chinese collaborators to root out Communist resistance fighters and shore up Japan’s position of authority in the region.

With a similar setting to the director’s 2016 film The Wasted Times, Hidden Blade is far more coherent, even with its non-linear structure that demands the audience’s unwavering attention.

Leung plays Director He, head of intelligence in Shanghai, and also the cousin of Minister Tang (Da Peng), the senior politician in the region. Both men report directly to General Watanabe (Hiroyuki Mori), and rule the city with an iron fist.