Rating: 
Summary: In Dreams I walk with you
Review: Akira Kurosawa's dreams are better than mine. If this is what he saw when he closed his eyes, then I can understand how from that mind sprang the Seven Samurai and the rest."Dreams" is maybe the most personal, most "Japanese" of Kurosawa's films, and along with that it is perhaps the most difficult one for Western audiences to appreciate. This is saying nothing against Western audiences, but many of the themes and myths on display may not be familiar, and the imagery and metaphors may be lost without the appropriate background. I definitely appreciated it more after living in Japan, and becoming familiar with the countries folklore and literary story-telling style. Hina Dolls, the Yuki Onna, the mountain villiges like islands of tradition amongst concrete modern Japan... "Dreams" is beautiful, on a purely visual level. The cinematography is exquisite and the colors and light are displayed with the eye of a painter. It is appropriate that Van Gogh plays a role in one of the many dreams. Like Van Gogh, the stories in "Dreams" are expressionistic and vivid, yet with the subdued emotions that is the hallmark of Japanese literature. This is not the wild, raw statement of a younger Kurosawa. Story-wise, the dreams play with the themes of death and loss, both human and of nature. The displacement of Japanese forests, the lack of safety standards at nuclear power plants, the loss of traditional Japan, the pointless loss of lives in war...melancholy themes at best. Yet at the end, hope is offered, in a small nook and cranny, like a flower blooming amongst concrete. The DVD itself is a small disappointment, and I would rather have this belong to the Criterion Collection, but better to have it than not have it.
Rating: 
Summary: OK, really only for Kurosawa Die Hard Fans
Review: The first short story was really cool. The others were Ok. Not really much to say. This was my first Kurosawa film. Wasn't too impressed. Was impressed with Hidden Fortress and Really impressed with 7 Samurai.
Rent-Maybe
Buy-No
Rating:
Summary: One of Kurosawa's Best
Review: I first saw this on TV and taped it. I was blown away by the visual beauty and terror of it all. The last story about the windmills? That is how I want my funeral. Music and joy, not tears and sadness. We all die, but it is how we live that really matters.
Rating:
Summary: Captivatingly beautiful
Review: I am a huge Akira Kurosawa fan, I love all of his movies that I have seen. I am always impressed at his masterful story telling and cinematography. "Dreams" holds a special place in my heart because of it's breathtaking beauty. Beyond "eye candy", however, this film speaks intelligently of many things, life, death, solitude, guilt, redemption. This is one of those rare movies that can be discussed and analyzed and questioned for hours after viewing. The Amazon.com review stated that this movie was "slow". How could one notice when one is busy looking at the amazing color, scenery, and imagery that is so masterfully created? "Preachy"? Perhaps, but they are good subjects to be preachy about - nuclear distruction, environmental distruction, not appreciating what one has... These complaints are the weak wingeing of shallow minds. After every viewing of his films, I feel compelled to bow respectfully and say "Domo Arigato - Thank you very much".
Rating:
Summary: It's 1.85:1.
Review: I just examined a 35mm print, and can confirm that fellow reviewer P.A.G. Fessel and the IMDB have wrong information about the aspect ratio. This film was composed for the 1.85:1 ratio, and that is the way it was shown theatrically. I have submitted a correction to the IMDB.
Not one of Kurosawa's best in my opinion, anyway. Still often quite fascinating.
Rating:
Summary: My favorite Dream
Review: Visit heaven on earth in the last segment: "The Village of the Watermills."
Rating:
Summary: In Your Dreams
Review: Although lacking the tight narrative movement of some of Kuraswa's best films, this loosely knit series of vignettes have moments of transporting beauty and depth that haunt one's dreams.
Kurasawa's dreams will work their way into your own.
There are moments of horror, brutality, fear, nostalgia, wonder, sadness and joy. The great thing about Kurasawa is his ability to create a cinematic world in which these feelings are experienced by the sympathetic viewer. I think of these short stories as fairy tales for adults, and the film produces a childlike suspension of disbelief, an acceptance of wonder, and a willingness to be led to truth by beauty.
Fairy tales are saturated with mythical achetypes that carry important cultural meaning, and many have a universal appeal to deeply-held belief systems and values. The universal appeal of Kurasawa's work is directly connected to his understanding and use of mythical archetypes. Even when translating a story from a Russian author and plopping the characters down in Edo-period Japan, or setting a Shakespearean drama down in Japan's feudal countryside, it is Kurasawa's depiction of the universal that makes him both a great Japanese director and a great world director.
Now, I don't love every vignette in this film equally, but I am truly haunted by some of the images and scenes in a disturbing way that makes my life richer and more interesting. That makes me think that you might like this film, too.
Rating:
Summary: Akira Kurosawa's Dreams
Review: This is the purest movie I think I've ever seen. AKIRA KUROSAWA'S DREAMS consists of eight short stories that do indeed seem like dreams, or at least were seeded somewhere in the deep subconscious. They also seem to follow a rough chronology - the first story is about a very young boy who goes out to play on a day he shouldn't. The last is about an adult who visits a utopian village of water wheels.
I think they're pure movies because the visual content is so strong that if they were translated to any other venue, even the stage, they would probably fall apart. These stories can be appreciated for their openness to interpretation (each story can be understood on more than one level) or simply as a continuous wash of wonderful images. As usual, I find myself humbled and a little speechless in the face of Kurosawa's genius. Strongest recommendation.
Rating:
Summary: One of my Favorite Five
Review: I don't know how many times I have watched this movie, I still watch it every chance I get. Now that it is (finally) out on DVD, I am ordering it so that I can watch it whenever I need to. I love all of the other Kurasawa movies (I consider Seven Samurai to be the greatest movie ever made) but this one is my personal favorite. It is beautiful and fulfilling, a rare work of art.
Rating:
Summary: One of Kurosawa's Best
Review: I first saw this on TV and taped it. I was blown away by the visual beauty and terror of it all. The last story about the windmills? That is how I want my funeral. Music and joy, not tears and sadness. We all die, but it is how we live that really matters.
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