The Samurai and the Prisoner – SLASH Filmfestival

Winter, 1578: Samurai Murashige has betrayed warlord Nobunaga and barricaded himself in Arioka Castle, now under siege by the warlord’s troops. When a mysterious murder rattles the fragile order behind the castle walls and more crimes follow, Murashige turns to Kanbei of all people for help: Nobunaga’s brilliant strategist, whom he has imprisoned deep beneath the castle. With his first jidai-geki (samurai film), director Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Pulse, Cure) delivers a dialogue-rich historical mystery about two men, who become increasingly entangled in each other’s psychological and moral conflicts. Calm and restrained, with little in the way of gory action, Kurosawa uses long takes and meticulous compositions to build quietly mounting suspense. Gripping and beautifully enigmatic! (Leonie Markovics)

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Kiyoshi Kurosawa

(b. 1955) is a Japanese director who knows how to get under your skin. A master of psychological horror, he began his career working on pinku eiga and direct-to-video productions in the 1980s. His international breakthrough came with the supernatural thriller Cure (1997), which was followed by the semi-sequel Charisma (1999) and the horror film Pulse. Awarded Best Director in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes for the romantic drama Journey to the Shore (2015), he returned to psycho-thrillers with his film Creepy (SLASH 2016). His suspenseful, elegant historical noir thriller Wife of a Spy (SLASH 2021) won the Silver Lion for Best Direction at the 2020 Venice International Film Festival. The Samurai and the Prisoner, his latest film and first foray into the jidaigeki genre, has grossed over one billion yen at the Japanese box office, the first of his directing efforts to reach this milestone.

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Kiyoshi Kurosawa

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