Akira Kurosawa's Dreams

Akira Kurosawa's Dreams (Konna yume wo mita) is a film by the amazing Akira Kurosawa. It was released in 1990 and is different than almost anything else the director had done before. Instead of being a movie based on a story, it is a movie based on actual dreams that Kurosawa had at different times in his life. There are eight different “mini” movies in Dreams. Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams is also sometimes called I Saw a Dream Like This or simply Dreams.

Synopsis

There are eight separate stories in Dreams.

Sunshine Through the Rain

According to an old Japanese legend, when the sun shines through the rain, foxes get married. In this first story of Dreams, a young boy decides to stay home from school on a day when it is both raining and sunny out. He wanders around and ends up seeing a wedding of foxes! He tries to watch the wedding, but is quickly discovered. He runs home to find his mother upset. She says that the foxes have visited and have left behind a sword that he is meant to commit suicide with. She says that the foxes are angry with him for spying on the wedding. The child then realizes that he has to apologize to the foxes for watching them uninvited.

The Peach Orchard

The Doll Festival is a festival that takes place in Japan in the spring when the peach blossoms are in bloom. It is said that the dolls that are put on display are meant to represent the trees. Unfortunately for one little boy, his family decided to cut down their peach orchard. He wanders down to the spot where the peach orchard was and finds that his sister’s dolls are there and have come to life! They are angry with him for chopping the trees down, but he explains that it was not his choice, and that he loved to see the beautiful trees as much as they did. They relent and decide to give him one last glimpse of the trees.

The Blizzard

A group of travelers get lost during a snow storm. One by one they each seem to disappear, leaving only one man left alive. Suddenly a woman appears in front of him. She tries to coax him to follow her, intending on his death, but he resists. Shortly after resisting the strange woman, the hiker realizes that he was not as far away from his destination as he thought he was.

The Tunnel

An officer in the military is heading home from war. He stops when he sees a strange tunnel that seemingly comes out of nowhere. A dog runs out of the tunnel, growls at him and then runs back in. Intrigued, the man goes into the tunnel and comes out of the other side only to see the souls of one of his fallen comrades. He tries to convince the officer that he is dead, but the officer does not believe him.

There are four more movies in Dreams, two of them being horror movies. These include: "Crows," "Mount Fuji in Red," "The Weeping Demon" and "Village of the Watermills."