And this week's Friday Night movie has been... Dersu Uzala!
I have previously spoken about my efforts to explore the oeuvre of Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. So we come to this: One of his lesser-known works.
This came about because Kurosawa wanted to do an adaptation of the novel by Russian author Vladimir Arsenyev. And he got a chance to do so when he was given Russian backing - so, with a Russian cast and crew, along with the opportunity to shoot in the wilderness of Siberia, Kurosawa came up with this movie.
When one thinks of Kurosawa, his samurai epics come to mind as well as his ability for orchestrating action scenes. But that is selling him short: He had a strength for his humanist approach to filmmaking and his subjects. And that is well and truly at play here. The titular character is a Mongolian man, well at home in the wild, and how he assists, and eventually bonds, with the captain of a Russian surveying expedition. It does make for a fascinating character study, with we the audience learning a lot about Uzala both as a character and his survival skills. Which makes the ultimate conclusion hit like a truck.
Another one of Kurosawa's strengths is his ability to conjure up beautiful shots. And here we have plenty of shots of the Siberian wilderness - it's all looking magnificent, especially considering that much of it isn't really accessible to human presence.
So yeah, an excellent movie with Kurosawa doing what he does best. Thoughtful and compelling tied with moments of beauty.
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