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Features: DVD, Widescreen, English, French, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Subtitled
One of the most visionary, deeply personal works in the 60-year career of the master behind Rashomon, The Seven Samurai and Ran. Featuring eight episodes rich in imagery and insight (and casting Martin Scorsese as a feisty Vincent Van Gogh), it explores the costs of war, the perils of nuclear power and especially humankind's need to harmonize with nature. You will be enchanted...and enthralled.
"A heartful homage to the joy and pain of making movies. So many memorable moments." Kenneth Turan, L.A. Times
Editor's Note
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.
Plot Summary
Eight of director Akira Kurosawa's cinematic renderings of dreams are on display within this large film, dealing with such concerns as the futility of war, the perils of nuclear power, and humankind's need to harmonize with nature, in styles that vary |from peaceful and pastoral to abstract and surreal. Martin Scorsese appears in |one sequence as painter Vincent Van Gogh.
| Features | Widescreen Version Enhanced For 16x9 TVs | | Filmography | | Audio: English | | Subtitles: English, French, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Portuguese | | Interactive Menus | | Scene Selection | | Theatrical Trailer |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Warner |
| Release Date: 4/28/2009 |
| Running Time: 120 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1990 | | Catalog ID: 1000001046 | | UPC: 00085392366026 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: Japanese | | Available Audio Tracks: Japanese | | Available Subtitles: English, French, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Thai, Mandarin | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | 1.85:1 |
| Cast & Crew
| Memorable Quotes| "This? Yesterday I was trying to complete a self--portrait. I just couldn't get the ear right. So I cut it off and threw it away."----Vincent Van Gogh (Martin Scorsese) regarding his bandaged ear |
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| | Professional Reviews | Sight and Sound
"...[Kurosawa's] swansong..." 06/01/1990 p.204USA Today
"...There's an abundance of striking imagery throughout, particularly in early vignettes that celebrate childhood innocence..." -- 3 out of 4 stars 08/24/1990 p.4D New York Times
"...Grand....The magical and mysterious are mixed with the practical, funny and polemical..." 08/24/1990 p.C1 Los Angeles Times
"...AKIRA KUROSAWA'S DREAMS contains some of the most beautiful images ever conceived by the man who is widely regarded as the world's greatest living director..." 08/24/1990 p.F1 Entertainment Weekly
"...[The tales'] awesome visual beauty encourages a degree of patience that's usually well rewarded..." 03/21/2003 p.91 Washington Post 9 of 10
The interplay of light, mist and rain in "Sunshine," for instance, is breathtaking, as is the choreography of the vivid dolls in "Peach." The moaning wind, the distant rumble of an avalanche and the labored breathings of four exhausted explorers in "The Blizzard," are haunting, crisply atmospheric sounds. So are the noises of increasingly loud marching feet as a ghost platoon emerges from a dark tunnel in "The Tunnel." - Desson Howe
Rolling Stone 7 of 10
Dreams is overlong: A parade of images--even dazzling ones--can sometimes dull the senses. But the cumulative effect is breathtaking. In one segment, sixty dolls (exquisitely costumed by Emi Wada, who won an Oscar for Ran) come to life on a hillside under falling peach blossoms. In another, an explosion in a nuclear power plant brings Mount Fuji down in flames. The beauty of nature and the horror in its destruction continue to incite Kurosawa to new heights of creativity. His Dreams will knock your eyes out without ignoring the mind and heart.
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