The Samurai and the Prisoner (Kurosawa)

**🎬 Film Night: The Samurai and the Prisoner — Thu, Sept 10** This month's pick is a change of pace: **The Samurai and the Prisoner**, the new film from acclaimed director Kiyoshi Kurosawa (*Cure*, *Tokyo Sonata*). Set during Japan's Azuchi era, it follows samurai Murashige Araki, who rebels against his lord Oda Nobunaga and barricades himself inside Arioka Castle — only for a brutal, unexplained murder to strike within the walls mid-siege. With no one able to crack the case, Murashige is forced to turn for help to the one man he trusts least: a rival strategist he himself threw in the dungeon. Think samurai epic meets locked-room mystery — reviewers have been calling it a cross between a jidaigeki and a detective thriller. Subtitled, and a bit of a slow-burn at \~2h27, but a gorgeous one by all accounts. 📽️ **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8CS87mZ52o 🎟️ **Tickets & showtimes:** https://thecinematheque.ca/films/calendar **📍 Where & when:** The Cinematheque — 1131 Howe Street, Vancouver 🕖 **Showtime**: **Thursday, Sept 10 — 7:00 PM.** Let's meet **outside the theatre at 6:30 PM** for intros and a quick catch-up before heading in. **🪑 Seats:** Heads up — this theatre doesn't do assigned seating, it's first come, first served. So let's aim to get there a bit ahead of the 6:30 meetup if we want any hope of sitting together as a group! A couple of other Cinematheque quirks worth knowing: it's a small, single-screen independent theatre (153 seats), so it can sell out — and by BC law you technically become a member of the Pacific Cinémathèque Pacifique Society when you buy a ticket (no big deal, just how they operate). Grab your ticket ahead of time if you can! See you all there 🏯