Dreams

Akira Kurosawa, Japan 1990, 119 minutes

Eight stories, eight dreams, are presented to us in a feast of visual and poetic beauty by one of Japan's masters of film:

1) Sun under the rain - a naughty child ventures out into the forest where he witnesses a fox's wedding ceremony.

2) The peach orchard - on the day of the spring festival a dead orchard blooms back to life thanks to the `spirits'.

3) The snowstorm - four mountaineers trapped in the cold and the wind fight to survive. A strange brown creature known as the snow fairy appears before them.

4) The tunnel - the entrance to a railway tunnel is guarded by a god. A Japanese soldier, unaware that the war is over, begins to daydream.

5) The crows - an artist admirer of Van Gogh enters the latter's paintings.

6) Mount Fuji in red - the Third World War forces civilians to seek refuge on a (red and melting) beach next to Mount Fuji in fusion.

7) The meaning demons - the war is over but all living things undergo transformation... here come the demons!

8) The village of the watermills - in an idyllic village a procession is organised in order to honour a very wise centenarian.

Akira Kurosawa uses the magical media of film to bring to life these eight stories he dreamt up. Some are more moving and more beautiful than others, but all are stunning in their own way, precious and powerful. Each narrative unfolds in a weird and wonderful fashion, sometimes uncomprehensively so, such is the nature of dreams. The costumes and photography are simply breathtaking.

Kurosawa lets his sensitivity express itself freely, the outcome of which is a film that is a celebration of the beauty of the poetic mind and of the imagination. Simply a must!

Review by Katia Saint-Peron
Taken from EUFS Programme 1997-98