Dreams (10/5)

We all dream at one point or another, sometimes we wish we could capture our dream and be able to re-visit it any time we want. In class today, we watched a film by Akira Kurosawa called "Dreams". I was pleasantly surprised and amazed by his film-- it is set up in eight increments:

Sunshine Through the Rain-- a young boy goes out into the woods, against his mothers wishes to witness a fox wedding procession. When he returns, his mother says to go and ask forgiveness from the fox's because they want the boy to commit suicide. He goes, yet there is no knowing what happened.

The Peach Orchard-- the same boy is now in a house serving young girls, when he sees and chases a woman in pink clothing into what used to be a peach orchard. When he is there, there is a group of "dolls", now humans, who laugh at the boy and are angry with him because his ancestors chopped down all the cherry trees. The boy defends himself by saying that he too dislikes what his ancestors did, and he loved the cherry trees. Then there is a beautiful ceremony performed by the dolls. The whole feeling is serene, graceful, and translucent in my view. It ends as soon as it begins (as most of the "dream" sequences are)--at first I was confused as to why the director would do this, but now I see the connection. When we dream, it never ends smoothly, we almost always wake up suddenly and abruptly--just like Akira's dream sequences.

The Blizzard-- I was confused as to the message (unless it was about looking for things that were right in front of us all along?) and this was not one of the most interesting dreams to me. Four men lost in a blizzard.

The Tunnel-- Wow. This one was so moving for me--it really brought out the hardship of war and the consequences of our actions. A man who is visited by the ghosts of soldiers that he sent to battle and were killed. He has to verbally tell them all that they are dead--it is so hard for him to do, but at the same time he has a chance to say sorry to all of them. Something that he truly needed to do.

Crows-- This one was a whimsical account of a young man (a painter?) at an art gallery, looking at Van Gogh paintings. He is then inside the paintings and eventually meets and has a conversation with Van Gogh himself. Beautiful music and for the first time, English is used.

Mt. Fuji in Red-- Not to keen on these two. Mostly death and destruction by way of a nuclear plant, although it does tell a warning of our own technology and chemicals--what they can do to us. Many die and commit suicide.

The Weeping Demon-- An interesting account of the aftermath of the Nuclear explosion. There are mutant "demons" with different horns that hurt them. Even in a world with demons there are class systems.

Village of the Watermills-- The order of the dreams was perfect. After seeing the last two dark dreams, the sight of the village is a beautiful sight to be seen. So peaceful, no electronics, no cars, no modern anything. Just peacefulness and a simple life to be lived. The visuals were breathtaking and the sounds of the water and nature completely took you in. After watching this last dream, I wanted to live there!