Dreams

I think at this point I can safely say this movie will never fail to engage me. I love how none of the dreams have a proper beginning or ending. They just sort of fade in and out of existence like you are having the dream. I love the score, and how beautifully shot the entire movie is. I love that each time I watch this I find myself picking a new favorite dream sequence because it stood out to me for whatever reason during a particular viewing. I love that the majority of this movie is extremely entrancing and calming. I don’t have good dreams ever. I have horrible nightmares, hallucinations, or sleep paralysis episodes multiple times a night, most days of the week. I watch this movie, which is trying to recreate the lucid peaceful side to sleeping through these dreams, and it makes me feel relaxed more than actual sleep does for me. Then there’s “The Weeping Demon” which actually disturbs me and isn’t peaceful to me at all. I love this sequence still because it helps the pacing of the film. Very few movies actually scare me and I love horror movies that are effective. This sequence gets close to how terrified I am when I sleep each night. The horror fan of me loves this aspect of the movie.  I wouldn’t call it my favorite dream, but I found a new appreciation for “The Blizzard” during this viewing. Of the 4 times I’ve watched this movie, I think I’ve fully stayed awake during that dream 1 time. Before I was writing this off as a me problem and didn’t hold it against the movie. But during this viewing I’ve begun to believe that making the viewer fall asleep is the intended effect. The dream is all about a group of mountaineers giving into exhaustion. There is minimal dialogue, and a lot of repeated shots that sort of lull you into sleep. It feels like Kurosawa is challenging the viewer to fight the same exhaustion the mountaineers are fighting. If you give in, like I so commonly do watching this movie at 2am, the dream ends with a triumphant score to wake you back up and watch the rest of the movie. If you never fell asleep during this dream sequence you get to enjoy it from the main mountaineers perspective. It’s sort of genius if you ask me.