Akira Kurosawa's Dreams

PG

Released Aug 24, 1990

1h 59m

Drama

List

67%

Tomatometer

30 Reviews

86%

Audience Score

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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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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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

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

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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

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Akira Kurosawa

Director

Ishirô Honda

Director

Akira Terao

I

Mitsunori Isaki

'I' as a boy

Martin Scorsese

Vincent Van Gogh

Mitsuko Baishô

Mother of 'I'

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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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