Beautiful to look at but a rather empty fantasy film.
Dreams (1990)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 17
Fresh: 9
Rotten:8
Average Rating: 5.7/10
Runtime: 2 hrs
Genre: Foreign Films
Synopsis: Akira Kurosawa's DREAMS consists of eight short films based on actual dreams of the director. The first sequence, "Sunshine Through the Rain," features a young boy sneaking off into the forest on a... Akira Kurosawa's DREAMS consists of eight short films based on actual dreams of the director. The first sequence, "Sunshine Through the Rain," features a young boy sneaking off into the forest on a rainy day to watch a procession of enchanted foxes. In "The Peach Orchard," a slightly older boy witnesses tree spirits performing a delicate dance. Weary travelers in "The Blizzard" face the elemental wrath of a snow enchantress, while "The Tunnel" finds a military officer haunted by the ghosts of his dead regiment. In "Crows," an art aficionado literally walks into the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh (played by Martin Scorsese). "Mount Fuji in Red" and "The Weeping Demon" are both fantastical cautionary tales about the hazards of nuclear power. Finally the gentle "Village of the Watermills" brings the film to a quiet, pastoral end. A highly personal project, DREAMS evinces its labor-of-love atmosphere in every sequence. As with all Kurosawa productions, each short film is meticulously designed and beautifully photographed. While many of the middle sequences are eerie and surreal, the first two films and the finale ("Sunshine Through the Rain," "The Peach Orchard," and "Village of the Watermills") are gorgeously lush and serene. [More]
Starring: Akira Terao, Chishu Ryu, Mieko Harada, Martin Scorsese
Starring: Akira Terao, Chishu Ryu, Mieko Harada, Martin Scorsese
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Director: Akira Kurosawa
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Release:
Apr 7, 2009
DVD Features:
- Region 1
- Snap Case
- Single Side - Dual Layer
- Anamorphic Widescreen - 1.85
- Letterbox - 1.85
Additional Release Material:
- Trailers: Original Theatrical Material
Interactive Features:
Interactive Menus:
- 1. Director Film Highlights
Text/Photo Galleries:
Filmographies:
- 1. Akira Kurosawa - Director
Reviews for Dreams
In the uneven career of Akira Kurosawa, two limiting factors were sentimentality and preachiness, and both come to the fore in this 1990 collection of eight dreams.
Only during a final procession does the old Kurosawa magic get a brief look-in, but by then the hackneyed moralising and dramatic languor have ensured that, despite the well-meaning message, it's hard to care.
Worth seeing if you are a fan of the director, but for anyone else I’d suggest first seeking out his more famous films of the 1950s and ‘60s.
It's something altogether new for Kurosawa, a collection of short, sometimes fragmentary films that are less like dreams than fairy tales of past, present and future. The magical and mysterious are mixed with the practical, funny and polemical.
Each [of the eight shorts] is beautifully photographed, and as eye candy alone, they are phenomenal. Unfortunately, several are sluggishly paced.
Perhaps the biggest and most painful vanity project ever put to film.
...brief, moral tales emphasizing visual splendor, imagery, and imagination over conventional characterization and narrative.
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