"Dreams" by Akira Kurosawa

"Dreams" by Akira Kurosawa was released in 1990. This film really is essentially eight short films rolled up into one big acid trip. From beginning to end you really have no idea what is happening and the more you try to make sense of it the more your brain tends to lead you into insanity.

The first dream is about a little boy who is told not to go into the woods when two weathers are occurring at the same time. A.K.A. sun showers. That's when some people known as "foxes" have a wedding that is fatal if you witness it. He goes anyway and is caught. It ends when he has to go face them for his punishment.



In the second dream, the same little boy finds the spirits of peach trees that are really sad because humans came by and cut them all down. The music is really nice, and the visual is intriguing of the spirits.





The third dream is about a group of men who get lost in the mountains during a winter storm and eventually are saved by some higher power when a nice warm camp appears out of nowhere,



By the fourth one they all seem to go down hill. A man wonders into a tunnel to find himself face to face with the men he was in charge of during war time. As it turns out he is responsible for their deaths. He tries to make peace but the spirits are too confused.



"Crows" is the name of the fifth one which involved a man traveling through Vincent Van Gogh's paintings. The man ends up having a bonding talk with Van Gogh who is played by Martin Scorsese.



In the sixth one it starts to become unbearable to watch. A nuclear power plant blows up and everyone panics over the radiation coming to get everyone. It kind of segways into the seventh one about the demons as a result of the explosion and how they are all in turmoil for the rest of time.



The eighth one is about a village of people who are entirely connected with nature. It seems to be like a communistic community except that they share nature instead of possessions.



The major themes of this movie are to be good to the environment and be nice to your fellow man. The themes were not subtle at all and were very, for lake of better words, spelled out for you. Even the dumbest of the dumb understood it.



I don't think words exist in the English Language for why I truly detest this film. Not only was it near impossible to follow, but audio for certain "dreams" really made me want to sew my eyes closed. I really am convinced my IQ dropped several points when I walked out of class that day.