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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 |
 "One of Kurosawa's Best"I first saw this on TV and taped it. I was blown away by the visual beauty and terror of it all. The last story about the windmills? That is how I want my funeral. Music and joy, not tears and sadness. We all die, but it is how we live that really matters. "One of my Favorite Five"I don't know how many times I have watched this movie, I still watch it every chance I get. Now that it is (finally) out on DVD, I am ordering it so that I can watch it whenever I need to. I love all of the other Kurasawa movies (I consider Seven Samurai to be the greatest movie ever made) but this one is my personal favorite. It is beautiful and fulfilling, a rare work of art. "Akira Kurosawa's Dreams"This is the purest movie I think I've ever seen. AKIRA KUROSAWA'S DREAMS consists of eight short stories that do indeed seem like dreams, or at least were seeded somewhere in the deep subconscious. They also seem to follow a rough chronology - the first story is about a very young boy who goes out to play on a day he shouldn't. The last is about an adult who visits a utopian village of water wheels. I think they're pure movies because the visual content is so strong that if they were translated to any other venue, even the stage, they would probably fall apart. These stories can be appreciated for their openness to interpretation (each story can be understood on more than one level) or simply as a continuous wash of wonderful images. As usual, I find myself humbled and a little speechless in the face of Kurosawa's genius. Strongest recommendation. "In Your Dreams"Although lacking the tight narrative movement of some of Kuraswa's best films, this loosely knit series of vignettes have moments of transporting beauty and depth that haunt one's dreams. Kurasawa's dreams will work their way into your own. There are moments of horror, brutality, fear, nostalgia, wonder, sadness and joy. The great thing about Kurasawa is his ability to create a cinematic world in which these feelings are experienced by the sympathetic viewer. I think of these short stories as fairy tales for adults, and the film produces a childlike suspension of disbelief, an acceptance of wonder, and a willingness to be led to truth by beauty. Fairy tales are saturated with mythical achetypes that carry important cultural meaning, and many have a universal appeal to deeply-held belief systems and values. The universal appeal of Kurasawa's work is directly connected to his understanding and use of mythical archetypes. Even when translating a story from a Russian author and plopping the characters down in Edo-period Japan, or setting a Shakespearean drama down in Japan's feudal countryside, it is Kurasawa's depiction of the universal that makes him both a great Japanese director and a great world director. Now, I don't love every vignette in this film equally, but I am truly haunted by some of the images and scenes in a disturbing way that makes my life richer and more interesting. That makes me think that you might like this film, too.  "OK, really only for Kurosawa Die Hard Fans"The first short story was really cool. The others were Ok. Not really much to say. This was my first Kurosawa film. Wasn't too impressed. Was impressed with Hidden Fortress and Really impressed with 7 Samurai. Rent-Maybe Buy-No |
