Akira Kurosawa's Dreams
by Akira Kurosawa, Ishir? Honda
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Akira Terao, Mieko Harada, Mitsuko Baisho, Mitsunori Isaki, Toshie NegishiDirector: Akira Kurosawa, Ishir? Honda
Brand: Warner Brothers
Writer: Akira Kurosawa
Producer: Allan H. Liebert
Producer: Hisao Kurosawa
Producer: Mike Y. Inoue
Producer: Seikichi Iizumi
Producer: Steven Spielberg
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: Japanese (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Portuguese (Subtitled); Japanese (Subtitled); Georgian (Subtitled); Chinese (Subtitled); Thai (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 119 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-03-18
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Warner Home Video
Movie Reviews of Akira Kurosawa's Dreams
Movie Review: Kurosawa's Surreal and Deeply Personal Meditation
Summary: 5 Stars
Dreams is a profoundly personal film by a hugely significant filmmaker in the twilight of his career and life. Akira Kurosawa was a wonderful producer, director, and screenwriter who created great films for fifty years; including such classics as Ikiru and Rashomon. In fact, I would assert that there are arguably at least five films on Kurosawa's staggering resume that would be called masterpieces if created by even the most acclaimed filmmakers of today. Dreams was made in 1990 and was one of his last movies (his final film being Madadayo in 1993). It is important to note that I did not know who directed Dreams when I first saw it, but was just as impressed.
The film is apparently based on various dreams that Kurosawa had throughout his life. The first is Sunshine through the Rain and follows a young boy who witnesses a kitsune wedding. The second is called The Peach Orchard and takes place during Hina Matsuri or the Doll Festival. A boy's family cuts down their peach blossoms before the festival and dolls from his sister's collection become animated. The Blizzard follows snowbound survivors on a mountain whose will to live is tested by a mysterious female spirit. The Tunnel tells the story of a dead soldier returning from war. The Crows includes an appearance by Martin Scorsese as Vincent Van Gogh. This stunning vignette follows a Kurosawa-like character that travels in and out of Van Gogh's paintings. The nightmarish sequences include the apocalyptic Mount Fuji in Red and The Weeping Demon, which both no doubt touch on crucial cultural anxieties regarding nuclear technology. Finally, Village of the Watermills ends the film with death, but also with jubilant celebration of life in general. I'm tempted to assume this is just Kurosawa's subconscious literally translated to the screen.
The images in Dreams are carefully symbolic and although they don't form one message at large, it does provide broad lessons and general wisdom. It also provides some absolutely gorgeous cinematography. I found it refreshing, even for Kurosawa, that the film's primary mode of communication was its visuals. These images are beyond words but so few masters execute this medium flawlessly enough to actually pull that off. This is not for everyone but I highly recommend it to anyone anyway.
Summary of Akira Kurosawa's Dreams
One of the most visionary, deeply personal works in the 60-year career of the master behind Rashomon, The Seven Samurai and Ran. Featuring eight episodes rich in imagery and insight (and casting MARTIN SCORSESE as a feisty Vincent Van Gogh), it explores the costs of war, the perils of nuclear power and especially humankind's need to harmonize with nature. You will be enchanted ... and enthralled.Produced with assistance from George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, Dreams is an omnibus of eight short stories and parables that spell enchantment at every turn. The opening story, "Sun Under the Rain," emerges from director Akira Kurosawa's personal memories, as a child (whose house is modeled after Kurosawa's childhood home in Koishikawa) witnesses a fox's wedding ceremony in a magical forest. The Garden of Eden motif continues in "The Peach Orchard," while Lucas's ILM special effects group shines in the glorious "Crows" segment, in which an art admirer finds himself living within the paintings of Van Gogh (played with concentrated energy by Kurosawa enthusiast Martin Scorsese). In the idyllic closing fable, "The Village of the Watermills," a centenarian claims that "people nowadays have forgotten that they are also part of nature." The equally wise Kurosawa reinforces the old man's claim through these vivid but ultimately life-affirming tableaux. --Kevin Mulhall
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