Trailer

A Little Samurai, 2023. drama, 1 hour 35 min., Japan-Kazakhstan

Directors: Sano Shinju, Yerlan Nurmukhambetov

DoP: Murat Nugmanov

Production designers: Aliya Shmanova & Bigul Amenova

Cast: Aktan Arym Kubat, Darezhan Omirbayev, Samal Yeslyamova, Sano Fuminobu

Producers: Sano Shinju, Yoshimura Shuichi, Assel Yerzhanova

Logline: 

Right after World War II, the Soviet Union forces a 13-year-old boy, Masao Miura, to go to Kazakhstan, where he follows a strange fate.

Synopsis: 

This is a real story that took place after the end of WWII. 13-year-old Masao Miura was captured by Soviet border guards on his way to Sakhalin, where he went in search of his parents. For violation of the state border, Masao Miura was arrested and put in prison. Later, he was exiled to Kazakhstan.

The movie starts at Ili station in the middle of the night. A young boy is standing on the bench at Ili station, looking cold. It was Masao Miura, 13 years old. The Kyrgyz Ybyray passes there. Ybyray resembles a Japanese person, and Masao was happy to meet a Japanese person in a strange land, who speaks in Japanese, but Ybyray didn't understand the language and smiled. Masao feels strange, but Ybyray feels sorry for such a young Masao, puts on his jacket, and gives him food. Then, a police officer at the station came and asked Masao, and Masao showed a sheet of documents. The document was a notice to impose compulsory labor in Ili Kolkhoz on Masao to atone for border invasion and espionage charges. Ybyray is asked by a police officer to put Masao on a horse and take him to Ili Kolkhoz. The kolkhoz was a poor kolkhoz, where not only Kazakhs but also German and Ukrainian exiles worked. However, Kolkhoz director Aman and his wife Mariam were a respectable Kazakh couple with good humanity and were kind to the Kolkhoz workers who were exiled.

...Masao Miura spent 53 years in Kazakhstan and was able to return to Japan only in 2002 as a result of the collapse of the USSR. He passed away on January 19, 2022. in his homeland, Japan.

Director’s Statement:

***This film was produced on a small budget by a group of friends filmmakers from Central Asia and Japan. The film was co-directed by Yerlan Nurmukhambetov from Kazakhstan and Sano Shinju from Japan. The cast includes Aktan Arym Kubat from Kyrgyzstan, Darezhan Omirbayev and Samal Yeslyamova from Kazakhstan. The children of the co-directors also played in the film.