Dersu Uzala (1975) on Netflix
G19752h 24mAdventureBiographyDrama
In 1902, Captain Vladimir Arseniev leads a Russian army expedition into the snowy Siberian forest. A Nanai hunter, Dersu Uzala, reads the forest better than the soldiers and agrees to guide them.
- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb8.2/1036,899 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes73%
Trailer
Plot summary
A Russian army survey party pushes into the Shkotovo region of the Ussuri territory in 1902, mapping a rugged frontier of unmapped forest. On the trail the soldiers meet Dersu Uzala, a nomadic Nanai hunter whose reading of the wilderness is far sharper than their instruments, and he agrees to serve as their guide. Dersu wins the group over with his instincts, his eye for detail and his compassion, mending a hut left empty and stocking it with food for travelers who come after. The men tire, food runs short, and the taiga punishes mistakes. Arseniev comes to rely on the hunter's judgment at every stage of the survey.
Cast
- Mikhail Bychkovas Otryad Arseneva (as M. Bychkov)
- B. Khorulev
- Dmitri Korshikovas Wowa son of Arsenjev
- Vladimir Khrulevas Otryad Arseneva (as V. Khrulev)
- V. Lastochkinas Otryad Arseneva
- Stanislav Marinas Otryad Arseneva (as S. Marin)
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Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Dersu Uzala (1975)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The Soviet side wanted Toshiro Mifune to play Arsenyev in Dersu Uzala, but the producer Yoichi Matsue talked them out of it, arguing that Mifune would not stay in Siberia for a shoot lasting for years.
- Kurosawa wanted a wild tiger for the tiger scenes, but capturing one and getting it to follow stage directions proved impossible: the animal collapsed, actor Yury Solomin complained about its treatment, and Kurosawa called the shoot off. An old circus tiger finished the scenes back in Moscow.
- Kurosawa learned in November 1976 that an Italian print had cut Dersu Uzala to two hours and recomposed its score with permission from the Soviet distributor Sovexport; at the German premiere in Frankfurt he vowed never to work with the Soviet Union again.
- Kurosawa saw his Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film as repaying a debt to the Soviet industry that backed him, but because the Academy treated Dersu Uzala as a Soviet film he competed against the Japanese entry Sandakan No. 8 (1974), and regretted not winning with a Japanese film.
- For wind effects the crew used the propeller of an old aeroplane, but in the cold its engine would not start; after two hours the engine caught fire and the shoot was cancelled.
- For a night scene of Dersu beside a campfire, Kurosawa had the crew hose down trees to form icicles and hang bottles in the branches so the objects knocking together would sound eerie, but the water froze inside the hosepipe.
- As production of Dersu Uzala ended, Chinese officials accused the film of anti-Chinese sentiment; Kurosawa disputed the charge, though he had found it difficult writing the film's Chinese characters.
- While making the film in the Soviet Union, the Japanese crew were closely watched by state police, yet were allowed into locations in Primorsky that were normally forbidden to foreigners.
