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Akira Kurosawa's Dreams Actors: Akira Terao, Mitsuko Baisho Directors: Ishirô Honda, Akira Kurosawa Number of Items: 1 Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen Format: Color, Widescreen Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) Running Time: 120 minutes Studio: Warner Home Video Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Region Code: 1 Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2003-03-18 Buy from Amazon |
 ""DREAMS" is KUROSAWA's Lifetime MASTERPIECE!"The first time, I saw "KUROSAWA's DREAMS", I was awestruck! I never tire of seeing it, over and over again! Each time, I see it, Kurosawa's remarkable "genius" shines through. Each segment is unique and "moving" and the characters are intriguing. The "Fox marriage in the woods" segment is amazingly-staged, like a Kabuki play. The "Peach Orchard and Royal Courtiers" segment brings back sweet childhood memories, when my Family used to set up an elaborate "Girls' Day" dolls-display, consisting of those same royal-court characters. In the "Blizzard" segment, I agonize with the mountain-climbers, through "blinding" snow, feel "false" comfort from the "snow goddess", then share their joy, at finding their camp. The "Soldiers in the tunnel" segment saddens me to tears, showing the tragic aftermath of war. The whimsical "Van Gogh" segment, with Martin Scorsese, artfully blends "canvas" into film and makes me want to "jump" into my favorite Van Gogh paintings. The "Mount Fuji" and "Weeping Demons" segments, though somewhat bizarre, continue to make me think, about Kurosawa's intended "messages". In the final "Watermills" segment, I feel peace, closure and acceptance of what has come before, highlighted by the joyful funeral-celebration for a woman, who lived a long, good life. In "DREAMS", Kurosawa presents a magnificent-spectrum of his life-views, in a surreal, yet "personal" way. Now that it's available on DVD, I'm THRILLED! I bought many copies, as gifts for my favorite Friends. "Dreams"8 visionary interpretations of life through the dreams of a master filmmaker. All are visually stunning with a philosophical message tied to it. Not one episode is a waste of time, but rather an enrichment of the mind, with a pure visual focus of beauty. This ranks as one of the master's greatest films, and one of the most unique, beautiful films ever committed to celluloid. "Dreams" is a collage of powerful messages and images weaved together into a voloptuous storybook of a film. "An Awakening of the Spirit World"To better experience Kurosawa's best film, it helps to understand the context in which the script was written. To many Japanese people, either because of their Buddhist or Shintoist religion, or because of the many childhood stories they have heard, the world is alive with spirits. These spirits could be described as angels by the Christian ethic, but much better as jin by the Muslim ethic. Jin describes them better because jin are not necessarily good or bad. Similarly, kami are spirits which could be good or bad depending on the situation. Virtually every one of the individual dreams in the movie has these spirits. Understanding that what you are seeing on the screen is not supposed to be a person -- it is supposed to represent a spirit helps empower the film. In some segments, it is obviously -- the storm woman from the dream on the mountain is clearly not human. But in the peach orchard, realizing that the girl never was intended to be human -- she represents the spirits of the peach trees -- both in an individual sense in that she could be one peach tree and in a universal sense in that she represents all peach trees everywhere or the idea of peach trees in the abstract. Historic Guilt: The extreme amount of guilt that Japan as a nation felt after WWII is expressed in the tunnel. This extreme guilt may be hard for some non-Japanese to believe because the Japanese government has not made as many public statements as other nations, such as Germany or even the Catholic church about the Christian Crusades. The Japanese sense of guilt is a powerfully internal event that can not be discussed openly. Seen in this light, the tunnel dream is overwhelmingly powerful. There are no Mountains with Mercy: In any given year between six and 18 mountaineers die in the extreme wilderness of the Japan Alps. Few people associate Japan with extreme mountaineering. The Alps are relatively short -- 3,000 meters mostly, but the construction of the mountains is rugged, sharp towering walls of granite -- formed by volcanic action and showered down upon by more than 100 inches of precipitation annually. Winter mountaineering is very dangerous and avalanches or whiteout snow storms are an ever-present threat. For Japanese, having grown up with the news reports of teams lost while climbing, the dream on the storm could well be a personally touching segment. It's hard to export Dreams, because this movie is so heavily endowed with cultural references. It is nonetheless a remarkably beautiful dream. "Wonderful, thought provoking, terrifying and uplifting"It begins with a sketch about a wedding that seems more like a funeral, and ends with a sketch about a funeral that seems more like a wedding. I must have seen this movie over a dozen times over the last several years. It's the only movie I've ever repeatedly rented as often as I have. I keep looking and hoping that it will be less expensive or come out on DVD but I'm still disappointed that that is not the case. I guess I'll have to break down and cough up the bucks to buy it, because it is becoming harder to find at the video stores. I'd really rather buy DVD though. "Not On DVD?? Insane!!"One of Kurwosawa's best. This movie needs to be available on DVD to truly appreciate the artistry and color palette of this film. If you have not seen this film. Buy it on VHS. Then write to the distributers and tell them their nuts not to release this film on DVD. |
