\n
![](\"https:\/\/cdn.i-scmp.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/1280x720\/public\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2026\/05\/20\/2ac209be-0e0c-4fc0-bf49-1af4b4121db4_b4036dfa.jpg?itok=wEyzx9dE&v=1779256528\")
<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
4\/5 stars<\/strong><\/p>\n Four decades on, the 70-year-old has taken another much-loved Japanese genre, the samurai drama, and stripped it of its swashbuckling conventions to deliver an atmospheric \u2013 and mostly action-free \u2013 suspense thriller that debunks myths of honour, reverence and reckless bravery in war.<\/p>\n An adaptation of a novel by Honobu Yonezawa, The Samurai and the Prisoner<\/em> \u2013 also known as Kokurojo<\/em> \u2013 is intelligent, intriguing and captivating throughout its two-and-a-half-hour runtime, with sturdy storytelling, immaculate production design and suitably spartan camerawork.<\/p>\n Set amid the feudal wars sweeping across Japan at the end of the 16th century, Kurosawa\u2019s film unfolds mostly within Arioka Castle, where the warlord Araki Murashige (Masahiro Motoki) is defending against a year-long siege by his mentor-turned-nemesis Oda Nobunaga.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nKiyoshi Kurosawa<\/span> launched his directorial career in the mid-1980s by turning one of the staples of Japanese cinema, the erotic \u201cpink film\u201d, into something steeped in style, politics and cinephilia.<\/div>\nIt is hardly a surprise that younger Japanese auteurs such as Ryusuke Hamaguchi<\/span>, Koji Fukada<\/span> and Yukiko Sode attended the film\u2019s premiere at the Cannes Film Festival to pay tribute to the director.<\/div>\n