Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams

Dreams is undoubtedly the most personal, moody, mystical, and stylish magic Kurosawa spelled, ever! Dreams is not an easy film to review, as it is an episodic bundle of various dreams from Kurosawa’s own life. If you ask me- “it is about a young boy who must seek forgiveness, or commit suicide, after witnessing a wedding of foxes. Another boy is forgiven by the nature for his family’s cutting of an orchard. An aspiring artist meets Vincent Van Gogh when his landscapes come stunningly to life. A captain, returning from war is stopped by the spirits of his wiped out company, and he must issue them his final order! A ghost seduces an exhausted mountaineer into the deadly embrace of a blizzard. And the nightmares- which include Mt. Fuji erupting, nuclear reactors exploding, and people mutated to an extent that they feed on each other. Finally, the dream where a lone hiker finds a village that knows no fear or sorrow for life’s ultimate reward!“

You may call Dreams a sequence of scattered sequences, and it indeed is difficult to categorize its splendid and vivid cinematography or breathtaking screenplay. Kurosawa’s representation of his internal narrative of dreaming is a personal voyage. Just like in dreams, many stories have abrupt endings. Just like dreams, the punctuation is sometimes slower than normal, and sometimes a roller-coaster ride. Each story has an awe inspiring simplicity. Each dream has different thoughts and ideas to ponder upon, with man’s harmony or disharmony with nature as the central idea. Each story is different from the other, except for the central character, who is generally an observer.

Dreams is like music! If you look at it the way I do, it is like an orchestra consisting of eight contrasting instruments, but the eventual harmonics is mesmerizing! It is often passive– as if Kurosawa were speaking to us. You can’t help but watch how Kurosawa paints his dreams on celluloid. Many critics claim that the film appeals primarily to those whose feelings or thoughts resonate with Kurosawa’s. Well, I guess this is ‘exactly’ what makes this film a masterpiece!

I give it 10/10.

How much will you give it?