Dreams is a 1990 dream film based on actual dreams of the film's director, Akira Kurosawa at different points of his life. This film is one based more on visuals than verbal dialogue. In “Dreams the director Kurosawa has made his own psyche and inner feelings the subject of discussion. The vibrantly colorful dream sequences are eight separate segments of the film which all convey their own themes.
The first dream opens in a sun-shower in which a small boy defies the wish of a woman, who could be his mother, to remain at home during a day with this kind of weather. The reason she explains is that the Foxes hold their weddings in this weather and they don’t like anyone to see the ritual . Out of childish curiosity the boy hides behind a large tree in the nearby forest, where he witnesses the slow wedding procession of the kitsune. It was a very chilling image, I couldn’t help but think of another contemporary Dream film, Stanely Kubrick’s : Eyes Wide Shut where Tom Cruise’s character Bill invades a mansion party in Long Island which he finds inside is a large group of people wearing various robes and Venetian carnival masks watching a sexualized ritual involving women standing in a circle. Both outsider characters suffered the same kind of fate from their curiosity.
The boy is spotted by the foxes and runs for his life. Upon arriving home his mother tells him that a Fox has left a tanto knife at their house for the boy. She gives him the knife , basically telling him that he must kill himself. She then instructs him to find the Foxes and beg for forgiveness. Although said to be an impossible act the boy heads out in discovery of the Foxes in negotiation for his life.
The next dream, "Peach Orchard" a boy chases a girl into a razed peach orchard, and comes face-to-face with some traditional china dolls in colorfull and extravagant costume who come to life . Arranged on a tiered green hillside , they antagonize him for letting his family chop down the beloved peach trees. The shot of the dolls on the hillside was very breathtaking and almost looked like a painting itself. The army of spirits tell the boy that his family is cursed for destroying their peach trees. But the spirits sympathize with the boy’s sorrow and perform a ritual to allow him one last glimpse of peach blossoms. In this Dream sequence we are exposed to yet another theme throughout this film . Kurosawa depicts man’s adverse effect on nature and the possible fate of mankind on this planet.
The film's final dream was "Village of the Watermills": This dream could be described as final paradise for the wandering psyche . Throughout the film themes of man vs nature, pollution, adverse effects of technology ,and radiation are constant. While watching this piece I felt it was the final calm and peace of the bombardment of worrying themes .
Children play and pick flowers to lay on the grave of another aimless wanderer, as our ego-character reaches a village at peace with nature. An old man explains that the people of his village decided long ago to not take part in the polluting influence of modern technology and return to a happier society. This society was also very clean and free from any pollution and the landscape was beautiful. They have chosen spiritual health over convenience. He mentions that man has forgetten that we are just a part of nature.
Akira Kurosawa's Dreams is very beautiful to look at but I feel that the actual content could be to abstract and hard to follow. I felt that eight dreams were to many to get his messages across and through the others the audience gets lost and confused. If this film was a shorter running time I think I would have enjoyed it more. I get the fact that how some of the scenes were shot were to mimic a dream , but some ran way to long . I really enjoyed the first and last dream though but there were some in between that were nothing more that filler to me. I enjoyed the initial view of the Crows but I felt that it wasn’t needed at all upon a second viewing. I just found Scorsese to be really funny as Van Gough . This film is a visual masterpiece but could be seen as inconsistent and somewhat preachy at times.
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