Japanese style maven Kiyoshi Kurosawa is usually recognized outdoors his homeland for eerie, visually ingenious movies like Treatment, Pulse and Loft that introduced the J-horror development into the arthouse. However he’s additionally made psychological thrillers (Creepy), serial killer flicks (Serpent’s Path), science-fiction films (Before We Vanish), a darkly comedian anti-capitalist actioner (final 12 months’s Cloud) and a minimum of one nice drama (Tokyo Sonata).
The auteur can now cross one other style off his bucket record with The Samurai and the Prisoner (Kokurojo), a stately and slightly stagy historic thriller set throughout the sixteenth century, at a time when warring clans fought and outmaneuvered one another for management of the land.
Kiyoshi Kurosawa
The Backside Line
Katanas Out.
Venue: Cannes Movie Competition (Cannes Première)
Forged: Masahiro Motoki, Masaki Suda, Yuriko Yoshitaka, Munetaka Aoki, Bando Shingo
Director, screenwriter: Kiyoshi Kurosawa, primarily based on the guide by Honobu Yonezawa
2 hours 27 minutes
Primarily based on the prizewinning 2021 novel by Honobu Yonezawa, the movie tells a narrative that may most likely be acquainted to anybody who grew up in Japan. It then takes that basic narrative and provides a number of new twists, in addition to a decidedly anti-war message that appears to be chatting with our time as effectively.
The story of Lord Murashige Araki (Masahiro Motoki), who betrayed the notorious samurai chief and “great unifier” of Japan, Nobunaga Oda (Bando Shingo), is normally depicted as one among treachery and cowardice: an formidable underling breaks ties along with his highly effective boss, holes up in his personal citadel surrounded by a small however devoted military, then finally decides to desert ship.
Kurosawa, who tailored the screenplay himself, transforms Murashige’s lengthy final stand into 4 interconnected mysteries every spanning a single season. Not in contrast to an Agatha Christie whodunit, however that includes katanas as a substitute of poison and revolvers, the tales all depict a seemingly inconceivable crime Murashige has to in some way resolve. Unable to try this on his personal, he enlists the assistance of Kanbei Kuroda (Masaki Suda), a devoted Nobunaga lieutenant who’s been taken prisoner within the citadel and presents to function a Watson to Murashige’s Sherlock, even when the detainee is to not be trusted.
This appears like the proper set-up for a suspenseful feudal thriller — assume Knives Out meets Throne of Blood — through which Kurosawa (no relation to Akira) may showcase his expertise for capturing violence and insanity, this time throughout the elegant medieval units designed by Harada Tetsuo (The Final Ronin). However the director roughly opts to eschew violence altogether, delivering a loquacious and theatrical drama that’s extra historically made than most likely something he’s directed up till now. Even when there’s a little bit of motion thrown in, it’s slightly brief and cold — extra suggestive than visceral.
In some methods this is smart: The entire motive Murashige thwarts Nobunaga within the first place is as a result of he rejects his chief’s brutal methods, as evidenced throughout a flashback through which he’s obliged to decapitate a bunch of harmless ladies. (Okay, so there are some beheadings right here, however even these look slightly clear.) In contrast to most samurais of his time, Murashige is considerate, erudite and believes violence is rarely the reply — a philosophy that comes again to hang-out him, particularly within the closing act.
The director’s sober if mastered method to such materials doesn’t essentially tantalize the viewer, though Japanese audiences accustomed to the characters and stakes could also be sucked in additional simply. One downside is that Kurosawa winds up repeating the identical state of affairs every time, even when the crimes, victims and culprits are all completely different: After investigating for some time on his personal, Murashige confides in his spouse, Chiyoho (Yuriko Yoshitaka), who seems to be much less harmless than she initially appeared. Then he heads all the way down to the dungeon for an extended chat with Kanbei, who sifts via piles of calligraphy scrolls like a detective mulling over proof recordsdata, providing up an speculation as to what actually occurred.
Not that there’s an absence of intrigue right here, however anybody anticipating {that a} movie referred to as The Samurai and the Prisoner could be stuffed with chopsocky motion scenes might be disillusioned. Kurosawa has as a substitute chosen to direct a refined homicide thriller dressed up in luxurious feudal garb, providing his personal tackle one of many oldest Japanese genres. Greater than that, he’s made a piece that questions the type of violence that has characterised most of his cinema, celebrating a legendary character who determined to stroll away from warfare slightly than waging it. Basic and contained (the motion hardly ever ventures outdoors the citadel), this can be a samurai flick that finally ends up denouncing the sacred code all samurais used to reside by.
