Kiyoshi Kurosawa spent three decades making Japanese films set in the present. Cure. Pulse. Tokyo Sonata. He'd never made a period drama.
The Samurai and the Prisoner is that film. Set in the 16th century, it follows a feudal lord besieged inside his own castle who has to solve a series of crimes while cut off from the outside world. The script is based on Honobu Yonezawa's novel, winner of the Naoki Prize, one of Japan's most prestigious literary awards.
Kurosawa admitted he felt apprehension about stepping into jidaigeki territory for the first time. The film premiered at Cannes. Then it made over a billion yen at the Japanese box office, the first of his films to ever reach that number.
It opens in the US on July 31. If you've never seen a Kurosawa film, watch Cure first. Then see what a horror director does with a samurai story.
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