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Akira Kurosawa's Dreams

Play trailer Poster for Akira Kurosawa's Dreams PG Released Aug 24, 1990 1h 59m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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67% Tomatometer 30 Reviews 86% Popcornmeter 10,000+ Ratings
This imaginative Japanese production presents a series of short films by lauded director Akira Kurosawa. In one chapter, a young boy spies on foxes that are holding a wedding ceremony; the following installment features another youth, who witnesses a magical moment in an orchard. In the segment "Crows," an aspiring artist enters the world of a painting and encounters Vincent van Gogh (Martin Scorsese). Many of the films in this inventive movie are tied together by an environmental theme.
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Akira Kurosawa's Dreams

Akira Kurosawa's Dreams

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Critics Consensus

This late-career anthology by Akira Kurosawa often confirms that Dreams are more interesting to the dreamer than their audience, but the directorial master still delivers opulent visions with a generous dose of heart.

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Critics Reviews

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Mark Le Fanu Sight & Sound For all its expensive production values, simplicity of emotion seems to be the keynote -- as it was in Shakespeare's last plays. Jan 16, 2020 Full Review Terrence Rafferty The New Yorker There's greatness in the film's first hour. Mar 4, 2013 Full Review Jonathan Rosenbaum Chicago Reader In the uneven career of Akira Kurosawa, two limiting factors were sentimentality and preachiness, and both come to the fore in this 1990 collection of eight dreams. Feb 9, 2007 Full Review Bill DuPre News & Observer (Raleigh, NC) The technique... allows the images to rattle through the viewer's mind like a transcendent line of poetry; these images are so intense and stay on the screen for such a time that the viewer's interpretation of them becomes introspective and personal. Rated: 3.5/4 Oct 18, 2023 Full Review Matt Brunson Film Frenzy Kurosawa is content to offer a series of fractured musings. Rated: 3/4 May 31, 2023 Full Review Rene Jordan El Nuevo Herald (Miami) Even the exalted defenders of "Dreams" have a hard time justifying this pair of abominable spawn. [Full review in Spanish] Dec 1, 2022 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (802) audience reviews
Greg B One of my favorite movies of all time! I love the artistry, cinematography, and the eclectic stories of this film! By watching this film, I was able to understand the sensibilities of Kurosama-Sensei's generation. Elements are very much embedded in Japanese folklore. Others are fantastical tales of survivors guilt after WWII. Or stepping into the world of a painting to talk with the master painter. Love of nature, and the wish to preserve it. Fear of nuclear energy, the abuse of it, and the repercussions of it. I watch this film at least once a year. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 03/23/24 Full Review NICOLE W This movie had amazing visuals and riveting stories. The audience score is accurate, in that if one chooses to watch this movie, there is some self-selection, and one is more likely to rate it higher. And it delivers. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 11/22/23 Full Review Desmond B Dreams is a sumptuous, thoughtful, dramatic, film from which I found it hard to look away. Although it is one of Kurosawa's last films, it shows him at the height of his power and creativity, and offers a glimpse into his mind, just as he glimpses the mind of van Gogh. My review is at https://thecannibalguy.com/2023/05/14/dreams-1990/ Rated 5 out of 5 stars 05/14/23 Full Review Bob A It was a valiant attempt and some may be attracted by its combination of pace, color, costumes, sounds, movement, and themes. However I turned it off after 50 mins. I found it overly tedious and superficial. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 04/06/23 Full Review william d There are some very beautiful images here. However, just like dreams in real life, the stories are haphazard, uninteresting to the outside observer, and ultimately inconsequential. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Michael M While not Kurosawa's best work and certainly not his most accessible, this anthology is nothing if not interesting. Each vignette has a distinctive and often gorgeous aesthetic, and while the writing is uneven (the final story, "Village of the Water Mills", feels like a polemic for luddism), the film captures the hallucinatory quality of half-remembered dreams extremely effectively. The cameo by Martin Scorsese in what I consider to be the film's best segment ("Crows") also made the film worth watching - seeing a collaboration between the two directors, even this minor, is something of a dream come true. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 09/08/21 Full Review Read all reviews
Akira Kurosawa's Dreams

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Movie Info

Synopsis This imaginative Japanese production presents a series of short films by lauded director Akira Kurosawa. In one chapter, a young boy spies on foxes that are holding a wedding ceremony; the following installment features another youth, who witnesses a magical moment in an orchard. In the segment "Crows," an aspiring artist enters the world of a painting and encounters Vincent van Gogh (Martin Scorsese). Many of the films in this inventive movie are tied together by an environmental theme.
Director
Akira Kurosawa, Ishirô Honda
Producer
Mike Y. Inoue, Hisao Kurosawa
Screenwriter
Ishirô Honda, Akira Kurosawa
Distributor
Warner Bros. Pictures
Production Co
Akira Kurosawa USA
Rating
PG
Genre
Drama
Original Language
Japanese
Release Date (Theaters)
Aug 24, 1990, Wide
Release Date (Streaming)
Jan 1, 2008
Box Office (Gross USA)
$1.7M
Runtime
1h 59m
Sound Mix
Dolby, Surround
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