The Samurai and the Prisoner (黒牢城). 2026. Japan. Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa. Screenplay by Kurosawa, Honobu Yonezawa. With Masahiro Motoki, Masaki Suda, Yuriko Yoshitaka. DCP courtesy Janus Films. In Japanese; English subtitles. 147 min.
At 71, Kiyoshi Kurosawa continues his late-career drift away from the supernatural themes that defined his earlier work with this subversive samurai film based on a 2021 mystery novel by Honobu Yonezawa. In 16th-century Japan, the samurai leader Araki Murashige (Masahiro Motoki) turns against his overlord Oda Nobunaga and barricades himself within Arioka Castle to wait for reinforcements. When Oda sends an envoy, Kuroda Kanbei (Masaki Suda, the protagonist of Kurosawa’s Cloud), to talk Murashige out of his revolt, Murashige defies convention and chains Kanbei in the castle dungeon. In the wake of a mysterious killing, the calculating Kanbei becomes Murashige’s chief confidant, using his relationship to subtly advance his own ends.
This slow, measured film plays out over the course of four seasons, as Kurosawa charts the shifting power dynamics between his characters with deftly choreographed camera movements that suggest Otto Preminger’s psychological dramas more than traditional swordplay films. Mysteries are revealed within mysteries, motivations within motivations, as the wild card remains Murashige’s wife Chiyoho (Yuriko Yoshitaka), a devout Buddhist with a spiritual agenda of her own.
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