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 🏯