Kenji Tanigaki, the action director of Blade II and Princess Blade

The basic premise behind the series is that the powerful leaders within the area each have a group of ninjas that they use to keep everyone else in line. These ninjas are known as the Shinobi. Kagerou, who was one of these Shinobi, was wrongfully accused of murdering his boss by Rokkaku, a leader in the area, so Kagerou and his gorgeous girlfriend, Aoi, are on the run. A few of the leaders have sent some of their own Shinobi after the pair, all the while the various leaders plot against one another to usurp more and more power for themselves. That's where this film picks up.

This chapter of the story once again follows Kagerou and Aoi who have escaped from the Shuuzan and his army of ninjas. Jinsei – the Shinobi Murderer, is chasing around after them and Shuuzan wants them back as well. To make matters worse, Rokkaku is also running around plotting the two ninjas demise, and trying to put himself ahead of the game by doing so. A whole lot of people change sides in the war, playing deceitful games with one another and messing with one another's heads. Kagerou and Aoi realize that if they want to stay alive, they're going to have to get out of the area before it explodes and they're going to have to do it fast.

If it all sounds a little bit confusing, don't worry, it's not you. There's a whole lot going on in this film that ties back to the first two parts and that builds towards the inevitable conclusion in the fourth (and I believe, final) film in the series so as such it ends on a cliffhanger and doesn't really resolve much at all.

That isn't to say that this entry is bad, because it's not. There's a boatload of action scenes in here that are handled very well and plenty of bloody swordplay. The pacing is incredibly fast and the film is never boring even if you have no idea what's going on in a couple of spots because it isn't all over yet. The acting is fine, and the girl who plays Aoi makes the entire eighty minutes worth watching all on her own – yowza, she's a hottie. The stunts and swordplay scenes are shot quite carefully and the director's experience with fight choreography is evident in this movie.

Judged (unfairly) on its own, Hidden Techniques is an incoherent movie with a ton of action but viewed as one part of a whole, as an individual chapter within a larger body of work (which is what it is), it's not a bad movie at all. A lot of times the middle chapters are the slower ones but that isn't the case here. There's enough action to satisfy even the most jaded of fight film fans and the movie doesn't slow down to catch its breath even once. Really though, do yourself a favor and check out the first two films in the series before you jump headfirst into this one – you'll enjoy the movie a lot more and you'll get a lot more out of it than simply a bunch of bloody ninja battles.

Video:

The movie was shot fast and cheap with the Japanese straight to video market in mind and as such it doesn't look like a big budget, high gloss production. The lack of big studio backing is obvious throughout the film and at times the movie does suffer because of it. That being said, this transfer doesn't do a bad job with the elements that it had to work with. The colors look a little flat and the image is a little soft overall, such is the nature of digital video sometimes, but the overall picture quality is acceptable, if unremarkable.