Dreams

This was the first Akira Kurosawa film I’ve watched and my god was it amazing. First of all, if you’re reading this and haven’t watched the movie yet, it’s important to know that this isn’t like an ordinary movie. It doesn’t follow a main plot at all, it’s a collection of little stories from Kurosawa’s dreams. I think that’s a really great premise for a movie because dreams can be so beautiful and interesting, they’re perfect for a movie. Now, it can be very hard to capture that sort of vibe you get from dreams, but I do think k this movie pulled it off flawlessly. And this movie is also a masterpiece in terms of cinematography. It utilizes color and scenery to wonderfully create these beautiful scenes that really stick with the viewer after watching. The use of dark and light, full and vibrant, old and warm, and all other sorts of color combinations to enhance the dreamlike aspects of this movie made it stand out in an amazing way. While I would love to talk about every part of the movie, I don’t want this review to be too long so I’ll talk about my favorite part and also my second favorite because those really stood out from the rest, at least to me. My favorite part was actually the one at the very end, The Village of Watermills, because it conveys the simple and peaceful lifestyle that man used to live. It commemorates this lifestyle that is at peace with nature and the world around it, and it does more than that too. It shows how beautiful and wondrous life really is. And it ties in with a very famous way of looking at death: don’t be sad that it’s gone, be glad that it happened. Obviously, death can be a terrible thing to many people, but when we take the time to really celebrate the life the deceased person lived and the things they did while still on this earth, we can really start to appreciate our own lives a lot more. I’d say my second favorite part would be Crows, mainly because it’s about Vincent Van Gogh and I just love to see his story retold in film every time, even if it’s just a short part of a larger film. And both of those parts had this whimsy to them that I really love to see in movies, and so do some of the others but those two were just my standouts. This movie is wonderful, so I would recommend it if you’re debating watching it.