Short Stories, Irish literature, Classics, Modern Fiction, Contemporary Literary Fiction, The Japanese Novel, Post Colonial Asian Fiction, The Legacy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and quality Historical Novels are Among my Interests








Tuesday, October 10, 2023

Dreams- A 1990 Film Directed by Akira Kurosawa- Run time 1 hour 57 Minutes


 Available on YouTube 


Akira Kurosawa's Dreams is a 1990 anthology film of eight vignettes written and directed by Akira Kurosawa, starring Akira Terao, Martin Scorsese, Chishū Ryū, Mieko Harada and Mitsuko Baisho. It was inspired by actual recurring dreams that Kurosawa said he had repeatedly. It was his first film in 45 years in which he was the sole author of the screenplay. An international co-production of Japan and the United States, Dreams was made five years after Ran, with assistance from George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, and funded by Warner Bros.

The eight vignettes are:

Sunshine Through the Rain: A young boy witnesses a fox wedding in the forest.

The Peach Orchard: A young boy returns to his childhood home and finds it transformed into a magical peach orchard.

The Blizzard: A group of people are trapped in a snowstorm and experience hallucinations..

The Tunnel: A man travels through a dark tunnel and encounters various strange and disturbing things.

Crows: A young artist enters the world of a painting and meets Vincent van Gogh.

Mount Fuji in Red: A nuclear power plant near Mount Fuji melts down, and the surrounding area is devastated.

The Weeping Demon: A demon appears in a village and begins to cry, causing the villagers to despair..

Village of the Watermills: A man visits a village where the people live in harmony with nature.

The film is a deeply personal and introspective work, exploring Kurosawa's own fears, anxieties, and hopes for the future. It is also a visually stunning film, with some of the most striking and memorable imagery in Kurosawa's filmography.

Dreams was a critical and commercial success, and it is now considered to be one of Kurosawa's masterpieces. It is a unique and unforgettable film that offers a glimpse into the mind of one of the greatest filmmakers of all time.

Mel Ulm


1 comment:

Buried In Print said...

Interesting! I have picked up this film to look at a few times, but never watched it. It sounds a little disorienting, but in a good way.