Review of Dreams (1990) by Glenn C — 02 Apr 2012

Eight legendary short films covering a number of ever-important topics. The first one about a boy who accidentally observes how foxes wed during a rain in a sunshiny day, refers to the childish perception of the world with lots of breathtakingly beautiful things, as well as the inconceivable and frightening.

The second one about a boy who regrets the cutting of a grand peach garden, and recollects the time when it was still there, blossoming, refers to the memory that can always bring back the irrational, but harmonic thinking of the childhood.

The third one about a group of people almost freezing to death in the mountains and staying in the snow all night, to find out in the morning their camp was a couple steps away refers to the perverted desire to surrender to death.

The fourth one about a platoon leader who meets his people, already dead, and asks them not to haunt him any more, refers to the feeling of guilt. The fifth one about a tourist who visits a museum and trespasses into the canvasses of Van Gauge, refers to the possibility of experiencing other people's lives through the power of art.

In the sixth one a nuclear power plant blows up behind the Fuji mountain, and people are pointlessly trying to hide from radiation, refers to the technogenic threats of the modern world. The seventh one about people living in tribes, like animals, refers to the darker side of human nature that waits for the hard times to show up and blossom into the animalhood.

The final chapter about a idyllic village full of happy and healthy people living in harmony with nature, probably refers to Kurosawa's idea of a perfect world where old ways are followed. By putting 'dreams' in the title, Kurosawa is not held back by the rules of formal logic; that enables him to simply expresses his thoughts in the form of a fable.