Dreams
A 1990 episodic film by director Akira Kurosawa (*1910 - †1998) based on actual dreams of the director at different stages of his life. The colorful film works more through visuals than language. The eight dreams together cover a lifetime and range from 1915 to the 1980s.
Title: Dreams
Language: Japanese, French, English
Published: 1990
Length: 119 minutes
Staff
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Script: Akira Kurosawa
Production: Steven Spielberg, Hisao Kurosawa, Mike Y. Inoue
Music: Shin’ichirō Ikebe
Camera: Takao Saitō
Cut: Tome Minami
Cast
Akira Terao: „I“ (adult)
Mitsunori Izaki: „I“ (12 year old child)
Toshihiko Nakano: „I“ (5 year old child)
Mitsuko Baishō: Mother of I
Misato Tate: snow fairy
Yoshitaka Zushi: Private Noguchi
Martin Scorsese: Vincent van Gogh
Hisashi Igawa: Nuclear plant Manager
Toshie Negishi: Mother with two children
Chôsuke Ikariya: weeping demon
Chishū Ryū: old man in the village
A 5-year-old boy watched the foxes at the wedding procession. That is forbidden.
The Peach OrchardA family cut down their peach orchard. The 12-year-old son encounters the spirits of the flowers, who complain bitterly.
SnowstormA group of mountaineers struggle through a snowstorm. A beautiful woman tries to lure one of them into the afterlife.
The tunnelA Japanese officer returns from the war. In a tunnel he meets the zombies of his company, which he has sent to their deaths. It's about the futility of war.
CrowsFor an adult Japanese, a van Gogh painting comes alive so that he can move in it. He meets the painter and talks to him.
Fuji in redSix nuclear power plants have exploded near Mount Fuji. Everything flees into the sea. The refugees discuss radioactivity, leukaemia, mutations and the scientists' irresponsibility.
The Crying DemonAn adult stumbles through a post-apocalyptic rocky desert and encounters a human-like monster. This tells about nuclear war. It is a retelling of a Buddhist parable.
The village with the watermills
The grown-up self walks through an original village in the most beautiful sunshine and meets an old man working as a basket weaver between babbling brooks and water mills. He tells slowly and calmly about the advantages of being in harmony with nature.
The film closes with a happy funeral procession for a woman who has lived a good and long life in the village.
"The film is a series of eight dreams in which Kurosawa's childhood memories, fears and hopes combine with fairytale magic in an intense, colorful dance of extraordinary poetry. A haunting call to return to the roots of life and creation and even beyond the banalities to discover the secret of existence."
