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Dreams
夢
1990 119 min Japan, United States of America PG 6+
★7.5
Fantasy, Drama
Director: Akira Kurosawa, Ishirô Honda
Trailers
EN
EN
Description
Eight visually rich vignettes drawn from Kurosawa’s own dreams—fox weddings and vanished orchards, a soldier’s ghosts, a walk through Van Gogh’s canvases, nuclear nightmares, and a water-mill utopia—meditate on childhood, art, mortality, and humanity’s uneasy bond with nature.
Budget:
$12M
US Gross:
$1.96M
Worldwide:
$2.97M
Starring
Akira Terao
Actor
Mitsuko Baishô
Actor
Toshie Negishi
Actor
Awards
Golden Globe 1991
— Best International Feature Film
Key opinion
Akira Kurosawa’s anthology of eight dream-inspired vignettes serves as a visually breathtaking meditation on humanity's fractured relationship with nature and the passage of life. While critics are divided on whether the film's moralizing social commentary strengthens or weakens its ethereal atmosphere, there is broad consensus regarding the masterpiece-level quality of its color composition and imagery.
| Cinematography | The film utilizes a vibrant and meticulous color palette that elevates its fantastical settings to visual masterpieces. | |
| Originality | The vignette centered on Van Gogh succeeds as an emotional peak by allowing the protagonist to traverse the painter's own canvas. | |
| Theme | The childhood-focused segments are universally praised for their poetic, awe-inspiring, and evocative atmosphere. | |
| Screenplay | The transition from pure, surreal fantasy to explicit ecological and social moralizing creates a tonal shift that some find distracting from the dreamlike immersion. |