The Prisoner of Sakura

The Prisoner of Sakura
The Prisoner of Sakura
	Film poster
Kanji	ソローキンの見た桜
Russian	В плену у сакуры
Directed by	Masaki Inoue
Screenplay by	Masaki Inoue; Shunsuke Katori
Produced by	Yumiko Masuda; Irina Inoue; Keisuke Shimizu; Hitoshi Endo
Starring	Junko Abe; Rodion Galyuchenko; Yoko Yamamoto; Aleksandr Domogarov; Naomasa Musaka; Masayuki Yuhara; Hana Ebise; Setsuko Kaida; Jtaro Sugisaku; Takumi Saitoh; Issey Ogata;
Cinematography	Tomoaki Iwakura
Music by	Hiroyuki Onogawa; Ivan Sintsov; Alim Zairov
Distributed by	Kadokawa Pictures; Heisei Project
Release date	March 22, 2019 (Japan);
Running time	111 minutes
Countries	Japan; Russia
Languages	Japanese; Russian
Box office	$1,635

The Prisoner of Sakura (Japanese: ソローキンの見た桜, Hepburn: Sorokin no mita saka) (Russian: В плену у сакуры, V plenu u sakury) is a 2019 Japanese war film directed by Masaki Inoue. A joint Japan-Russia co-production, the movie is based on the true story of a prison camp in Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture, during the Russo-Japanese War.^[1]^[2]

Plot

In the present day, a journalist named Sakurako Takamiya works for a local TV station. She researches into the Russian prisoners of war cemetery that local students keep clean. Her boss Shiro Kurata tells her about a letter from Russian Army officer named Alexander Sorokin, which was addressed to a nurse named Yui Takeda. They travel to Russia to look into Sorokin's diary.

In 1904, during the Russo-Japanese War, Yui takes care of the injured Sorokin at a prisoner of war camp in Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture, Japan. At first, Yui hates Sorokin, because her younger brother died in the war. Her feelings change, as they fall in love under difficult circumstances.

Cast

Junko Abe as Yui Takeda/Sakurako Takamiya
Rodion Galyuchenko as Alexander Sorokin
Yoko Yamamoto as Kikue Takamiya
Aleksandr Domogarov as Captain Vasily Boysman
Andrei Dementiev as Alexander Svyatopolk-mirsky
Naomasa Musaka as Yukichi Takeda
Hana Ebise as Naka Takeda
Setsuko Kaida as Take Takeda
Ivan Gromov as Alexey Krushinsky
Issey Ogata as Commandant Kono
Takumi Saitoh as Shiro Kurata
Jtarô Sugisaku as TV cameraman
Rii Ishihara

Reception

The movie was screened at the opening of the

Ehime International Film Festival pre-event on March 15, 2019. After being pre-released at a movie theater in Ehime Prefecture from the following 16th, it was released nationwide from 22nd. According to a survey by Kogyo Tsushinsha, it won first place in the mini theater audience mobilization ranking on March 22 and 23. In November 2019, the movie was released in 200 movie theatres across Russia.^[3]^[4]

At overseas film festivals, it was screened at the out of competition section of the

Orenburg, Russia from August 23 to 28, and won the Audience Grand Prix Special Award. On November, the movie won the Russia-Japan Friendship Contribution Award at the Russian Overseas Film Festival.^[5]^[6]