The Hidden Blade (隠し剣 鬼の爪)

This is a movie directed by Yamada Yoji (山田　洋次), who also directed Love and Honour. The story is about a low-ranking samurai who must decide between his duty to his lord and clan, and what he thinks is right.

For the similarities between kenjutsu and taiji brought up in this movie, read my other post at my taiji blog.

The lead character, the low-ranking samurai Katagiri Munezo, is first torn between his love for his former maid, Kie, and the social divides of caste. They cannot marry because one is samurai, another is peasant. Eventually, he renounced his samurai status to become a peasant, and married Kie.

Katagiri was also tasked by his clan to kill his former classmate and old friend, Hazama. Hazama had plotted revolt, and was captured, but he managed to escape. Much as Katagiri did not want to obey this order, he was compelled by his duty to his clan and his obligation as a samurai to obey his duty. He obeyed his orders and sought out his old friend in combat, coming out the victor.

The movie is also about the changing times in which the movie was set in. It was just before the Meiji Restoration, and people's thinking was changing because of the changing times, brought in largely because of the increasing Western influence ever since Commodore Perry forced open Japan's gates with his Black Ships. While there were conservatives holding on to past traditions and old practices, there were also people like Katagiri, who dared to break the old rules (like carrying his former maid out of the house of her husband, who was ill-treating her).