(1990) Japanese film maker Akira Kurosawa is renowned for his consistently powerful, visually elegant and deeply philosophical works, including Seven Samurai, (remade as “The Magnificent Seven”), Ran (based on Shakespheare’s “King Lear” and set in medieval Japan), and Kagemusha. In a career which has spanned over 40 years, Kurosawa has always presented his reflections on life through hauntingly beautiful cinematography and subtle characterizations. Turning to his own dreams for inspiration, the eight semi-autobiographical vignettes contained in “Dreams” continue this awesome tradition.
Cast
- Akira Terao
- Mitsuko Baisho
- Mieko Harada
- Chishu Ryu
- Hisashi Igawa
- Mitsunori Isaki
- Toshihiko Nakano
Director:
Akira Kurosawa
Tags: akira kurosawa
While certainly not the greatest work in the career of this very great filmmaker, “Dreams” is, alternately, a dreamy, nightmarish, subtle and forthright film by Akira Kurosawa. The first two dreams seem the most Japanese of the dreams in style and content with very Japanese understatement. Some very beautiful photography here. The dream in which a platoon comes back from the dead almost seems(and I don’t say this to demean a great artist) like an episode from “the Twilight Zone” – one almost expected a Japanese Rod Serling to step in and moralize. The dream in which the Japanese art student wanders through the landscapes of Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings is a wonderfully surreal piece of whimsy. The second and third-to-last dreams are in fact nightmares. One envisages Mt. Fuji erupting volcanically setting off explosions at surrounding nuclear power plants. This dream is very Japanese in its concerns, reflecting memories of the two nuclear holocausts unleashed on Japan in the Second World War. The other ‘nightmare’ dream seems like a sequel to the preceding dream, notable both for the comic torments of the demon in the post-nuclear-explosion environment and for those outlandish mutated dandelions – also surreal in its way. The film ends with a dream in which an old man and his village are in harmony with nature. I love the old man’s performance. He says that the funeral procession is for his first love, who threw him over for another lover. The way the old man laughs about this is priceless. The second and third-to-last dreams suggest that humanity can make a Hell of the environment and the world. The very last dream suggests it doesn’t have to be that way. Too bad more people don’t believe that. If I might allude to the work of a very different director, Akira Kurosawa seems to the believe in the possibility of a Better Tomorrow. Ah, perhaps. See absolutely everything you can by Akira Kurosawa. A genius. Greg Cameron, Surrey, B.C., Canada