Notebook(@mubinotebook):"Despite the wartime setting, this is not at all an action movie but rather a twist on how the safety of enclosed worlds can recreate the conditions of imprisonment. That Araki stands his ground boldly but ignominiously on a policy to not only preserve his prisoner, but in fact to avoid killing all together, all the while scheming to end the larger war around him, centers [Kiyoshi] Kurosawa's cerebral, discursive, and ultimately abstract wartime film ironically on the theme of mercy in a society at war with itself." Revisit @danielkasman on THE SAMURAI AND THE PRISONER:

Notebook

@mubinotebook

@mubi's international film publication, exploring all sides of cinema culture—both online and in a biannual magazine.

Joined August 2009

1.4K Following 69.8K Followers

Notebook@mubinotebook

2026.08.01 14:11

"Despite the wartime setting, this is not at all an action movie but rather a twist on how the safety of enclosed worlds can recreate the conditions of imprisonment. That Araki stands his ground boldly but ignominiously on a policy to not only preserve his prisoner, but in fact to avoid killing all together, all the while scheming to end the larger war around him, centers [Kiyoshi] Kurosawa's cerebral, discursive, and ultimately abstract wartime film ironically on the theme of mercy in a society at war with itself." Revisit @danielkasman on THE SAMURAI AND THE PRISONER: