Kiyoshi Kurosawa Premieres 30th Feature at Cannes, Finally Making a Classical Samurai Film
Updated
Updated · Hollywood Reporter · May 18
Kiyoshi Kurosawa Premieres 30th Feature at Cannes, Finally Making a Classical Samurai Film
2 articles · Updated · Hollywood Reporter · May 18
The Samurai and the Prisoner gives Kiyoshi Kurosawa his first full-scale jidaigeki at age 70, premiering in Cannes' Cannes Premieres section after decades of working with tighter budgets.
The roughly 30th feature became possible only when Kurosawa secured enough money to pursue a classical period style with large sets, costumes and locations rather than a modernized TV-style samurai drama.
Set in 1578 at Arioka Castle, the film follows rebel lord Araki Murashige, played by Masahiro Motoki, as a murder inside the besieged fortress forces him into an uneasy alliance with imprisoned strategist Kanbei Kuroda, played by Masaki Suda.
Kurosawa said the film is explicitly anti-bushido, centering a warlord who rejects killing and ultimately abandons power, a pacifist theme he sees as resonant amid widening global conflict.
Produced by 130-year-old Shochiku, the film arrives as Kurosawa shares Cannes with former students Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Koji Fukada, underscoring his influence on a new generation of Japanese filmmakers.
Can a 16th-century samurai epic truly answer a call for modern, socially conscious Japanese cinema?
With Japan's new film incentives, will its cinema embrace global blockbusters or its own critical auteurs?