A film about brotherhood, or perhaps even soulmates in the purest sense of the word, between two men who live in completely different worlds. There's a certain sense of deep respect, a camaraderie that can never be erased, when one guides you through his own world with nothing but acceptance and compassion. Sometimes that world is hostile to those outside it, and more than once the guide saves the life of his follower.

"Thank you, Dersu. Thank you," the Russian repeats. "What would I have done without you?" The Goldi reassures him, "Walk together, work together. No need to say thank you." From here on the Capitan marches forward with, not behind, Dersu.

Soon the Capitan returns to his world,…

Akira Kurosawa obviously had a love for Russian culture, having already used three Russian works as inspiration for his earlier films. Therefore Dersu Uzala, as Kurosawa's only film made in Russian, is clearly a passion project. The shots are some of the most beautiful of Kurosawa's career, engineered by his relentless perfectionism. Kurosawa makes the most out of the Far Eastern landscape. His use of weather is more evocative than ever, through snow, fog, and gales. Silhouettes in the sunlight punctuate many scenes. Most staggeringly comes a moment with the sun and moon in the same shot, a beautiful unspoilt world below.

Dersu Uzala has a quiet undercurrent of tragedy. It depicts a native of the Russian Far East, someone…

I often wonder how religious beliefs evolve. Maybe I've spoken of this before, but I like to think about the genesis of superstitions and so on, and when I hear of an interesting one, I linger on it a bit. In this film, the titular character believes that his god will punish him for shooting a tiger. He has many interesting beliefs about nature and divinity and their connection, but this one stood out because this is what I know about tigers: they are bad ass. There's a lot of chatter about what animal is the most dangerous and whatnot, but there's a reason tigers feature as an unstoppable villain in Kipling's stories, and there's a reason men used to…

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ACTION! - HEART OF AKIRA, BLADE OF KUROSAWA

Kurosawa goes back to reality for this epic tale of brotherhood between probably the least likely individuals amid conflict.

Akira and his crew of cinematographers (three according to LB) shoot the living heck out of this film with plenty of breathtaking shots, often utilizing the deserted landscapes and wilderness to visually speak about the psychology of our characters and other times just to paint the scale and scope of the film, a moving picture coming to life.

Now the most important thing about this film is the friendship at the center of it all between our title character and Yuriy Solomin’s Arsenev. Both have a great and effective chemistry,…

Kurosawas russian slow burner is a walking tour through a theme park of existential motifs - civilization vs nature, spirituality and belief, loneliness and friendship. most important is the question though: is the human inherently good?

our protagonist Arsenev is nothing more (and nothing less) than a persona to identify with. he represents us, the spectator - curious and eager to learn more about this peculiar creature in front of him. he's a passive being (notice how he is never interacting with the soldiers he's commanding), basically only a witness, only our eyes and ears.

the actual centre of the film though, that's Dersu Uzala - the man with a tragic backstory, that should have traumatized him for life. instead…