AN ANALYSIS ON AKIRA KUROSAWA’S “DREAMS”

What better way to interpret this abstract film than by looking through the
morality and symbolism that each of Kurosawa’s dreams holds.
The film is a collection of eight ethereal stories based on Akira Kurosawa’s recurring dreams,
most of which sprang up from his childhood anxieties. Some of the themes were woven from
Japanese folklore while others, if not all, were drawn from strong emotions and states like
guilt, fear, death, and destruction that made most to the nightmare segments of the film.

He expressed, in a “magical realism” approach, his disappointments in the society he

inhabited where man’s greed and innate propensity to immorality could potentially ruin the
building blocks of civilization. The movie is a representation of his dismay and failures in
the real world that manifested themselves through his dreams.

Kurosawa’s scenarios open and close much like your eyes as you drift off to the REM stage
of your sleep. At the beginning of each dream, a sudden noise or movement rouses you as a
signal that a new world is about to be introduced.

The ghoulish characters, although cartoonish in form, act as significant symbols in the short
stories. Just like in dreams, these symbols parallel the realities and emotions experienced
in real life. Viewers must take the time to recognize the meanings of these symbols. Only
through this that we can appreciate how compelling the film is rather than indicting it for
its unorthodox style. However, “highbrow” movie critics would rather call the movie bland
than giving it credit for its uniqueness and deep meaning.

There is plenty of imagery involved that give off an unwelcoming mood, except in the last
sequence wherein viewers can appreciate the humor and light atmosphere that oppose the
earlier dark segments.

Identify the 8 dreams Akira Kurosawa and what does it represent or

symbolizes when viewed as a whole and what is the important message for
mankind?

I. The first sequence “Sunshine Through the Rain”

I think the first dream of Kurosawa tells about how people at a young age should
listen to older people as represented by the child who failed to listen to his mother
and ended up in a dire situation with the foxes. I think in real life, Kurosawa had
done the same thing as the boy in the dream and the guilt of disobeyance to his
mother was carried out into his dream.

I think it also wants to tell us that at a young age, people commit many mistakes
that we may not know the gravity of. With immaturity in our minds, we make
decisions without thinking rationally and this usually ends up with a negative
result.

II. “The Peach Orchard”

The third scene which is “The Peach Orchard” tells about a boy who mourns for the peach
trees that his parents had chopped down. In the film, it was shown that the spirits of the
peach blossoms were first mad at the child because his parents chopped them down.
However, the spirits realized that the boy unlike his parents love the peach blossoms and in
fact sad to lose them. The spirits gave the boy a final chance to see the peach blossoms as a
gift for the boy.

This may be an interpretation that as long as we care for the nature, the nature will reward
us. At the last part, the spirits left a single peach tree to the boy, I think this says that as long
as someone cares for the nature, there is still hope for it to survive and blossom in full bloom
again.

III. The third segment which is entitled “The Blizzard”

IV. The fourth dream entitled “The Tunnel”.

V. “Crows”

VI. “Mount Fuji in Red” and

VII. “The Weeping Demons”

VIII. The last dream is the “Village of the Watermills”