Dersu Uzala / Дерсу Узала (1975). Part 1 (English subtitles).

Dersu Uzala / Дерсу Узала (1975). Part 1 (English subtitles).

This Akira Kurosawa film is based on ...Dersu Uzala / Дерсу Узала (1975). Part 1 (English subtitles).

This Akira Kurosawa film is based on the books by Vladimir Arsenyev, a prominent Russian scientist and explorer of the late 19th-early 20th centuries. It is the story of the writer Vladimr Arsenyev's long-standing friendship with a taiga trapper named Dersu Uzala. In the course of their travels, a real-life character, Dersu, was revealing to his friend, the secrets of the Ussuri taiga, the animals, special ways, the traditions and beliefs of the indigenous people. This motion picture teaches us to approach Nature with loving care, to open up our hearts to man and beast, to bird and flowers. The understanding and bonding that develops between the two men Arseniev and Dersu is wonderful to see, and over two hours holds your attention with expertly observed minutiae of character and scenic interplay. The last ten minutes cover a lot of ground (no pun intended) but it's all so logical and sad that I always need to see the end credits to recover. So many marvellous scenes: the tiger in the forest in the morning; the phlegmatic reclusive old Chinaman; the raft; wispy blue shaded smoke from night-fires; the conclusion of course; the view of those two great men, the Moon and the Sun in the same shot. Not everyone would like Dersu, their most likely comments being "boring" - but how wrong they are they'll never know!

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