Rating: 4/5
Criterion Challenge 2024 | 4/52 | First film on your watchlist
“Dreams” is a collection of stories based on dreams that Akira Kurosawa had. The result is a series of fairy tales starring a surrogate Kurosawa, credited as “I.” Kurosawa’s “I” falls subject to the mercurial world of dream logic, a passive agent to a world he barely understands.
The key emphasis in each story is the visuals. And they are beautiful. Seeing this on the big screen someday would be amazing.
They also have an intentional artifice to them that evokes Noh theater. “I” performs the role of the waki. The waki, a visitor, learns the place’s story from a shite. “I” is not the protagonist of his own story.
As a last film, this contrasts with Miyazaki’s most recent film, The Boy and the Heron. Both movies immerse the viewers in dream logic. Where Miyazaki falters is, perhaps, trying to unify his disparate dreams rather than let them be episodic as they are here. This film, however, does not arrive anywhere.
I plan on revisiting this movie after seeing more of Kurosawa’s earlier work, especially the color ones like Ran.
This movie is stunning and unique, shining brightest when it focuses on the personal rather than the universal.
Sunshine Through the Rain A mother warns a young boy about when the sun shines through rain. That foxes have their weddings then and dislike to be observed. That terrible things happen. The boy goes into the woods against his mother’s wishes. He witnesses a fox wedding procession and must face the consequences.
Beautiful visuals — rich colors of tall trees, bending flowers, and a rainbow. Kabuki-like performers symbolically represent the foxes and their wedding. The cadence has the fearful tread of a fox, occasionally stopping to look around. Compositions swallow the child in a world too big and beautiful to comprehend.
The Peach Orchard During Hinamatsuri, a boy serves six meals to five girls. One is missing, but no one else is aware of this sixth girl. A girl in pink appears only to him. He follows the girl to a multi-tiered hill where peach trees once grew. There, he meets hina dolls dressed in Heian period court attire — spirits of the former trees. The boy discovers what people lose when they cut down a peach tree.
I can buy peaches at the store. But where can I buy a peach orchard in bloom?
A fluid camera takes the boy from his home through the fog. The court attire is gorgeous, especially with the bright sunlight.
The Blizzard Four mountaineers make their way up a mountain path during a blizzard. One by one, they stop in their tracks and give in to death. The leader tries to carry on when a yokai appears to him.
Dense fog, heaving breaths. This one is pretty tedious at first. Everyone moves in slow motion. The world is a blanket of white. But after several minutes, its intention becomes apparent.
The Tunnel “I,” a company commander in WWII military uniform, walks bleak roads. An anti-tank dog, glowing red, snarls at him. He enters a tunnel. Across the way, he meets a ghost. The ghost is a private who served under him.
This piece reflects on survivor’s guilt and the agony of death darkly and quietly. A commander feels he has failed his entire platoon. This one hit me. The ability to apologize to the ghosts of your past failures is a powerful image.
Crows “I,” an art student, visits a Van Gogh exhibit. He enters one painting to see Van Gogh and follows Van Gogh through several other paintings.
I have to hurry. There's so little time for me to paint.
Kurosawa wrote in his memoir that he wanted to be a painter but felt that he realized he didn’t have a unique perspective after seeing the works of artists like Van Gogh. This film is easily his most painterly. There’s an entire conversation you can have about Kurosawa and color. I don’t have enough understanding to engage meaningfully in that.
Scorsese as Van Gogh is an odd choice. Maybe this is Kurosawa’s way of connecting painting and film as artistic expressions.
Mount Fuji in Red A red sky. Flames erupt around Mt. Fuji. Its rocks glow red. The nuclear power plant exploded. Everyone runs in panic, but they know they have nowhere to run. Everyone disappears except for “I” and three others. The ocean depths hold the others.
When critics talk about this movie being didactic, this is one segment they’re likely referring to.
The Weeping Demon “I” walks a desolate land. Behind him are the ruins of a destroyed city. He encounters a horned demon who used to be human. It laments the world of before, where flowers grew.
The aesthetic and narrative of this segment are notably simpler, almost resembling a children’s movie. While I understand Kurosawa’s dispair regarding nuclear power, I don’t know who this segment is for. It looks intense, though!
Village of the Watermills “I” enters a village with no name, where every home seems to have a water wheel. Children pick flowers and place them on a stone. An older gentleman works on a water wheel. He laments the difference between “convenient” and “good” and discusses being one with nature.
This one provides a peaceful and soft contrast to the past two segments’ nightmares. Kurosawa fervently advocates for the importance of the natural world.