Japan Synopsis
隠し剣 鬼の爪
Set in 19th Century Japan a young samurai who finds himself in love with a farm girl leaves his home to begin a new life. He has to take stock of his new life when he is put to the test and ordered to kill a traitor who just happens to be his dearest friend.
Titles With Overlapping Themes
Films and series that share thematic tags with The Hidden Blade. Number on each card indicates how many keywords overlap.
Other Titles From Eisei Gekijo
Drama + Romance in Japan
270 Japan titles in our catalog blend the Drama and Romance genres. Below: the top-rated of them (excluding The Hidden Blade itself).
The 2003–2005 Japan Window
The Hidden Blade holds position #70 of 298 Japan films in the 2003–2005 window, below highlighted by audience rating.
The 2000s Japan Landscape
Catalog density by release year across the 2000s in Japan, 1020 titles in total. Highlighted year (yellow) is when The Hidden Blade premiered alongside 95 others.
Position in Catalog
Released alongside 95 other Japan films in 2004.
The 1644th Japan title from Japan we index (earliest catalogued entry: 1899).
Our Japan catalog contains 4,579 titles in total (2,908 films).
Audience Engagement
90 audience reviews — more than 74% of Japan films in our index.
Review volume (74th percentile) outruns trending popularity (39th) — a durable title with sustained audience attention.
Thematic Fingerprint
Tags on The Hidden Blade, grouped by how common each theme is across the full Asian catalog. Rare tags are more distinctive signals.
- social class · 3
- historical · 28
- feudal japan · 26
- edo period · 19
- honor · 10
- bushi · 9
- caste system · 6
- based on novel or book · 288
- revenge · 210
- samurai · 128
- jidaigeki · 61
- sword fight · 56
- period drama · 37
Reception Benchmarks
Ranked #1,389 of 4,579 Japan films indexed here (70th percentile by TMDB audience score).
Rating is +0.5 points above the Japan average of 6.9/10.
Among Japan Drama productions specifically: #605 of 1,933 (top 31%).
Production Details
| Primary Country | Japan |
|---|---|
| Original Language | Japanese |
| Production Companies | Eisei Gekijo, Shochiku |
| Runtime | 2h 12m |
| Release Date | October 30, 2004 |
| IMDb | tt0442286 |