Lets look at Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams. Though he initially trained to be a painter, Akira Kurosawa made the shift to film in the mid-1930’s and by the start of the 1940’s, he had made the leap from assistant director and screenwriter to director in his native Japan. This was the start of a legendary filmmaking career that saw him make classics like Rashomon (1950), Ikiru (1952), Seven Samurai (1954), Yojimbo (1961), High and Low (1963), Kagemusha (1980) and Ran (1985), just to name a few off the bat; by 1990, he had been awarded an Honorary Oscar for his overall body of work, but he wasn’t finished just yet. That year – which commenced his seventh and final decade in film – saw him deliver one of his best late career works, Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams. Originally released on DVD by Warner Bros. and on Blu-ray by the Criterion Collection, the latter has given the film its UHD Blu-ray debut.
The Production: 4.5/5
For his first original script in over 40 years, Akira Kurosawa eschewed a traditional feature length story structure in favor of eight vignettes based upon the dreams he had over the years. In “Sunshine Through the Rain”, a young boy witnesses a wedding march of the foxes in a rainy forest. In “The Peach Orchard”, a young boy follows a girl he spotted in his house into where his family’s peach orchard once grew and finds the life-sized incarnation of the dolls – the spirit of the peach blossoms – used in the Hinamatsuri (Doll Festival) on the orchard’s slopes. In “The Blizzard”, a leader of a group of mountaineers finds himself face to face with the Yuki-onna trying to lure him and his comrades into a freezing death. In “The Tunnel”, a discharged commander comes to meet the spirits of his fellow brothers in arms who died in combat during WWII. In “Crows”, an art student enters the world of Vincent van Gogh’s paintings and meets the famous artist face to face. In “Mount Fuji in Red”, a nuclear plant near the mountain melts down, creating calamity for the fleeing populace and for a few who arrive at the seaside a colorful yet grim revelation of the radioactive material. In “The Weeping Demon”, a lone human survivor from a nuclear holocaust meets a demon who explains the torment he and others suffer through. In the final dream “Village of the Watermills”, a visitor to a secluded riverside village learns about the settlement’s peaceful co-existence with nature and witnesses a joyful funeral procession celebrating the life of a recently deceased elderly woman.
In Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams, the film takes a look at the personal visions and fears of one of cinema’s most visionary filmmakers. Drawing upon Japanese folklore and his own life, Kurosawa delivers one of his most personal films, as the episodic nature ranges from childlike wonder to apocalyptic and nightmarish fears. For each of these dreams, Kurosawa employs an on-screen surrogate for him – Mitsunori Isaki as the younger version of him and Akira Terao as the adult version of him – while bringing a diverse acting talent to the project from longtime Yasujiro Ozu collaborator Chishu Ryu as the old man in the final dream to – in one of the more interesting casting decisions in Kurosawa’s career – Martin Scorsese as Van Gogh in the “Crows” segment. While this focus on the personal may leave some viewers feeling kept at arm’s length emotionally, it’s nonetheless a purely beautiful film visually and emotionally and Kurosawa brilliantly utilizes the talents of his crew – especially cinematographer Shoji Ueda and the team of visual effects artists at George Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic – to bring these stunning dreams to life. In the end, Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams is a fitting late-career triumph for a master of filmmaking that serves as a lament on a world gone by and possibly heading for oblivion and as a visual and spiritual journey for the viewer into a legend’s dreams and visions that have driven him throughout his career.
Video: 5/5
3D Rating: NA
The film is presented in its original 1:85:1 aspect ratio, taken from a brand new HDR/Dolby Vision transfer created for this release, taken from the 4K digital restoration done for the 2016 Criterion Blu-ray, supervised by the film’s cinematographer, Shoji Ueda; on the UHD Blu-ray disc, the film is presented in HDR while the Blu-ray disc accompanying this release presents the movie in SDR. Film grain, color palette and fine details are all presented faithfully with only minor cases of scratches, dirt or tears present. Overall, this release builds upon the solid presentation of the previous Criterion Blu-ray and is now likely the best the movie will ever look on home video.
Audio: 5/5
The film’s original soundtrack is presented on a track for this release. Dialogue (in Japanese, English and French with subtitles), sound mix and music score are all presented faithfully with minor cases of distortion, crackling, popping and hissing present. Overall, this release is still likely the best the movie will ever sound on home video.
Special Features: 4.5/5
2016 commentary by film scholar Stephen Prince –Â Originally recorded for the 2016 Criterion Blu-ray, Prince analyzes each of the dreams and how it corresponded to a part of Kurosawa’s life.
Making of “Dreams” (150 min.) – The feature-length behind the scenes documentary by Nobuhiko Obayashi takes an extensive look at the making of the movie.
2016 interview with production manager Teruyo Nogami (17:23) – Kurosawa’s longtime collaborator shares her memories of the film’s production as well as her association with the director in this archival interview.
2016 interview with assistant director Takashi Kozumi (16:03) – Kozumi also reflects on the film’s production and why it took some time after Ran to get this film produced in this archival interview.
Kurosawa’s Way (50 min.) – The 2011 documentary by Catherine Cadou – Kurosawa’s longtime translator, who also appears in Dreams as one of the washer women in Van Gogh’s painting – looks at the impact of his work on a diverse group of directors: featuring interviews with Bernardo Bertolucci, Clint Eastwood, Julie Taymor, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Bong Joon-ho, Abbas Kiarostami, Scorsese, Theo Angelopoulos, John Woo, Shin’ya Tsukamoto and Hayao Miyazaki.
Theatrical Trailer (1:47)
Booklet feat. an essay by film critic Bilge Ebiri and Kurosawa’s script for an unfilmed dream with an introduction by Nogami
Overall: 4.5/5
Drawing critical praise upon initial release, Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams represents a late career triumph for the master filmmaker, who showed that he still had the capacity to create memorable images for audiences across the globe. Criterion has likely delivered the best home video presentation of the movie, with a stellar HDR transfer and carrying over all the previous special features from the previous Criterion Blu-ray release. Very highly recommended, especially if you haven’t got the previous Blu-ray in your collection.
Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams (The Criterion Collection)…
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Mychal has been on the Home Theater Forum’s reviewing staff since 2018, with reviews numbering close to 300. During this time, he has also been working as an assistant manager at The Cotton Patch – his family’s fabric and quilting supplies business in Keizer, Oregon. When not working at reviewing movies or working at the family business, he enjoys exploring the Oregon Coast, playing video games and watching baseball in addition to his expansive collection of movies on DVD, Blu-ray and UHD, totalling over 3,000 movies.
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