{"id":2567,"date":"2026-06-26T06:35:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T06:35:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=2567"},"modified":"2026-06-26T06:35:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T06:35:22","slug":"kiyoshi-kurosawas-period-thriller-the-samurai-and-the-prisoner-drops-first-trailer-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=2567","title":{"rendered":"Kiyoshi Kurosawa\u2019s Period Thriller \u2018The Samurai and the Prisoner\u2019 Drops First Trailer"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tInside a feudal Japanese castle ringed by a warlord\u2019s army, a series of impossible killings begins to turn a besieged court against itself \u2014 and the cornered lord, unable to find the culprit, seeks counsel from the one man cunning enough to unmask the murderer: a brilliant strategist he has chained in his own dungeon.<\/p>\n

Read more David Boreanaz, Former \u2018SEAL Team,\u2019 \u2018Bones\u2019 and \u2018Angel\u2019 Star, to Keynote Italian Global Series (Exclusive)<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tSuch is the set-up for The Samurai and the Prisoner<\/em>, the latest feature from director Kiyoshi Kurosawa. Four and a half decades and some 30 films into his career, it is the acclaimed Japanese genre master\u2019s first samurai movie. Janus Films snapped up U.S. rights to the film after its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May and will release it in theaters on July 31. The company dropped the samurai saga\u2019s first trailer on Thursday (see it below). <\/p>\n

\n\tFor Kurosawa \u2014 the restless genre stylist behind the serial-killer classic Cure<\/em>, the J-horror landmark Pulse<\/em> and, most recently, the psychological thriller Cloud<\/em> \u2014 making a jidaigeki<\/em> (Japan\u2019s genre of feudal samurai movies) had been one of the longest unrealized ambitions of his career. Set in Japan\u2019s 16th century Warring States period, The Samurai and the Prisoner<\/em> is adapted from Honobu Yonezawa\u2019s 2021 novel Kokurojo<\/em>, a winner of Japan\u2019s prestigious Naoki Prize.<\/p>\n

\n\tMasahiro Motoki, star of the Oscar-winning drama Departures<\/em>, plays Lord Araki Murashige, a real-life vassal who rebelled against the warlord Oda Nobunaga in 1578 and barricaded himself inside Arioka Castle. As Oda\u2019s forces press in from the outside, a killing within the walls spirals into a string of inexplicable crimes, and the besieged Murashige strikes an uneasy bargain with Kanbei (Masaki Suda, the recent lead of Kurosawa\u2019s Cloud<\/em>), a dangerous strategist he has detained in his dungeon. The ensemble cast also includes Yuriko Yoshitaka, Joe Odagiri, Munetaka Aoki, Ryota Miyadate and Tasuku Emoto.<\/p>\n

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\n\tKurosawa, who also wrote the adaptation, shot the film in a richly shadowed classical style with cinematographer Yasuyuki Sasaki. It was produced by Shochiku \u2014 the 130-year-old studio behind Ozu\u2019s classics, as well as Departures<\/em> \u2014 in association with Tokyo Broadcasting System Television. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019ve always had this desire to make a jidaigeki film one day, but to do so nowadays takes a lot of money,\u201d Kurosawa told THR<\/em> ahead of Cannes, noting the elaborate sets, locations, wigs, makeup and costumes the classical style demands. \u201cI just never really had the opportunity given to me until now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tKurosawa said he revisited numerous Jidaigeki classics \u2014\u00a0the works of Akira Kurosawa, Masaki Kobayashi, and Kenji Mizoguchi \u2014\u00a0while developing his approach to The Samurai and the Prisoner. <\/em>Hashing out his simple ambitions for the project, he added: \u201cI wanted to try a classic film in a similar style to the great older films that came before me.\u201d <\/p>\n

Read more Kiyoshi Kurosawa\u2019s Period Thriller \u2018The Samurai and the Prisoner\u2019 Drops First Trailer<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The ‘Cure’ and ‘Cloud’ director’s first period samurai feature \u2014 a 16th century-set mystery thriller adapted from an award-winning Japanese novel \u2014 lands in U.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":111,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[64,24,2,595,2028],"class_list":["post-2567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting","tag-asia","tag-cannes","tag-international","tag-kiyoshi-kurosawa","tag-the-samurai-and-the-prisoner"],"yoast_head":"\nKiyoshi Kurosawa\u2019s Period Thriller \u2018The Samurai and the Prisoner\u2019 Drops First Trailer - US Property Moves<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=2567\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kiyoshi Kurosawa\u2019s Period Thriller \u2018The Samurai and the Prisoner\u2019 Drops First Trailer - 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