The Samurai and the Prisoner - Official Site

NOW SHOWING - 2026 JAPANESE FILM FESTIVAL (UNTIL 28 NOV)

The Samurai and the Prisoner - poster - a film by Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Impeccably crafted. Like the gripping manoeuvring and manipulation of early seasons 'Game of Thrones'... every bit the Agatha Christie novel as it is a sermon against the foolishness of men and their wars. With stunning production design, costumes, score, cinematography and more, this is grown-up cinema at its most scintillating.

Steven A. Russell

ORION'S SHOULDER

Critic's Pick. Superb. A satisfying period piece about the tense collaboration between a lord and a cunning envoy, on leadership, strategy and deception.

Ben Kenigsberg

THE NEW YORK TIMES

Sheer filmmaking mastery. A chamber piece with big ideas and riveting performances. This is Kiyoshi Kurosawa's 'Throne of Blood', one of the other Kurosawa's unequivocal masterpieces, and it earns that comparison in every way.

Brian Tallerico

ROGEREBERT.COM

A stately slow-burn in which every conversation feels like a move in a chess match.

Wendy Ide

SCREEN INTERNATIONAL

It’s the way that Kurosawa merges the personal and the political, the procedural and the profound, that makes “The Samurai and the Prisoner” into something that feels incredibly urgent despite it all taking place hundreds of years ago. A remarkable, restrained and ultimately riveting film that earns every moment and then some. It's impossible to look away.

Chase Hutchinson

THE WRAP

Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Cast: Masahiro Motoki, Masaki Suda Yuriko Yoshitaka, Munetaka Aoki, Ryota Miyadate, Joe Odagiri

Duration: 147mins

Country of Origin: Japan

Mature themes and violence

Critics' Rating 97%

Impeccably crafted. Like the gripping manoeuvring and manipulation of early seasons 'Game of Thrones'... every bit the Agatha Christie novel as it is a sermon against the foolishness of men and their wars. With stunning production design, costumes, score, cinematography and more, this is grown-up cinema at its most scintillating.

Steven A. Russell

ORION'S SHOULDER

Critic's Pick. Superb. A satisfying period piece about the tense collaboration between a lord and a cunning envoy, on leadership, strategy and deception.

Ben Kenigsberg

THE NEW YORK TIMES

Sheer filmmaking mastery. A chamber piece with big ideas and riveting performances. This is Kiyoshi Kurosawa's 'Throne of Blood', one of the other Kurosawa's unequivocal masterpieces, and it earns that comparison in every way.

Brian Tallerico

ROGEREBERT.COM

A stately slow-burn in which every conversation feels like a move in a chess match.

Wendy Ide

SCREEN INTERNATIONAL

It’s the way that Kurosawa merges the personal and the political, the procedural and the profound, that makes “The Samurai and the Prisoner” into something that feels incredibly urgent despite it all taking place hundreds of years ago. A remarkable, restrained and ultimately riveting film that earns every moment and then some. It's impossible to look away.

Chase Hutchinson

THE WRAP

OFFICIAL SELECTION - 2026 CANNES FILM FESTIVAL (Cannes Premiere)
OFFICIAL SELECTION - 2026 SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL (Special Presentations)
OFFICAL SELECTION - 2026 MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
OFFICIAL SELECTION - 2026 NEW ZEALAND INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

From renowned writer/director Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Cure, Tokyo Sonata), the majestic new historical thriller THE SAMURAI AND THE PRISONER fuses samurai spectacle with whodunnit intrigue, as a samurai lord is drawn into a series of shadowy murders within his own castle walls in feudal Japan.

Settsu Province, 1578. Lord Murashige Araki (Masahiro Motoki) is barricaded inside his fortress as the forces of powerful rival warlord Nobunaga Oda close in. When Oda’s brilliant strategist Kuroda Kanbei (Masaki Suda) arrives as an envoy bearing a warning, an enraged Murashige imprisons him instead of ordering his execution, keeping him as a valuable yet dangerous pawn. But when an inexplicable murder rocks the castle, Murashige is forced into an uneasy alliance with his captive, whose razor-sharp intellect may be the key to solving the crime and exposing a hidden traitor before the court tears itself apart…

Adapted from the award-winning novel by Honobu Yonezawa, Kurosawa’s richly atmospheric, tightly wound thriller melds samurai and detective genres, drawing on the contemplative simplicity of classic mid-century Japanese cinema to deliver an elegant and probing portrait of power, honour and survival under pressure.