Which cinematographer worked with Kurosawa on Seven Samurai and Dersu Uzala?

Asakazu Nakai worked with Akira Kurosawa on both Seven Samurai and Dersu Uzala.

Nakai was one of Kurosawa’s most important long-term cinematographic collaborators. He was the principal cinematographer on Seven Samurai, Kurosawa’s 1954 landmark about a village hiring seven warriors to defend it from bandits. The film’s dynamic tracking shots, weather effects, telephoto compositions, and carefully staged action became hugely influential.

More than two decades later, Nakai joined Kurosawa on Dersu Uzala, the 1975 Soviet-Japanese film set in the Russian Far East. The production used a cinematography team that also included Soviet filmmakers Yuri Gantman and Fyodor Dobronravov, so Nakai was not the only person credited with photographing the film. He is nevertheless the distinctive Kurosawa collaborator linking both titles.

The alternatives can cause confusion because Takao Saito also worked repeatedly with Kurosawa, including on later films such as Kagemusha and Ran. Kazuo Miyagawa, meanwhile, photographed Rashomon and Yojimbo, but not both Seven Samurai and Dersu Uzala.