Kurosawa- Dreams

            As we go along in our formal journey, it is time to apply the Formal Theory to real works. Dreams, directed and written by Akira Kurosawa, is the first work up that I will try to squeeze the meaning out of.

            First some background on Kurosawa. After receiving formal training as a painter, Kurosawa became a director of movies in the 1940’s in wartime Japan. Over a long and prolific career, Kurosawa became a film icon and an influence to directors around the world. Before the end of his life, he made a film called Dreams- a divergence from his earlier films. The text contains different dreams in the form of short films from the director’s life. Kurosawa wrote the screenplay entirely independently, a sign of the deeply personal work. Released in 1990, the film met lukewarm reception at Cannes. However, the film’s beauty resides in the fact that it adheres to its form so strictly, and it should be read and interpreted as poetic language.

            I did some digging into the Rotten Tomatoes page for Dreams to see what people think about the film, as opposed to film critics. It reveals the interpretive latitude that the film affords; some reveal that it is their favorite movie, favorite Kurosawa movie, and sing the praises of its poetic vague nature. Others balk at its preachiness, sluggishness (#doomed?) and self-indulgence.

            Anyway, let’s get to the application of the Formal Method to Dreams. Beginning at the overall structure of the text, we can see that it is divided into 8 essentially equally timed dream sequences that paint vivid pictures of each dream. Each is starred by a central male figure, “I”. The Dreamer, I, starts as a boy then becomes a man, then an older man. In each dream, the same sequence of events essentially occurs, with different variations on that theme. In this way, the form recalls how dreams work- fragmented sequences that seem to slip in and out of existence. There is very little context- the viewer is thrown into the story.  

            In each dream, the general form is repeated, which reflects the repetition of dreams and patterns of sleeping. A male protagonist witnesses some supernatural event which makes the Dreamer hyper-aware of nature. For example, in the first sequence “Sunshine through Rain” the young boy witnesses a wedding processional (in the Kabuki style) of foxes. This event is supernatural- the boy is not supposed to be seeing the sacred ritual. After this, he is given a decree to either seek the foxes’ forgiveness or kill himself, putting him in the context of the hierarchy of nature. The sequence called “The Blizzard” resembles the form of “Sunshine”. Mountain climbers, stuck in a blizzard, are about to give up living before the protagonist is recalled to life by a supernatural being. They then realize, somewhat comically, that they have only traveled a couple feet from their camp and are saved from certain doom. The form of a male protagonist witnessing a supernatural event that gives him some realization about nature can be mapped on to the work itself as a whole- Kurosawa is the male, receiving the supernatural events (dreams), and those dreams allow him to make realizations about the world.

The dream sequences are linked to the ones immediately preceding and after it. This form builds continuity but allows the themes of the dreams to shift. For example, “Crows” and “The Tunnel” may seem quite different, but both are linked by the presence of animals which represent a shift to a supernatural state. In “The Tunnel”, the dog is a quasi-Cerberus,  who growls and barks at the Dreamer before he crosses into the other side. In “Crows”, the Dreamer sees the crows inside a Van Gogh which transport him into the world of the paintings themselves. Interestingly, both crows and dogs are traditional psychopomps, which transport deceased souls to the afterlife. Probably just a coincidence though.

For Kurosawa’s Dreams, the form is everything. The form reinforces the meaning intrinsic to the work itself. The implications of the text can be derived from the form and just the content inside: that dreams give us a glimpse of the supernatural and therefore some insight into nature. Kurosawa encourages us to embrace the meanings of our dreams and explore the potential therein. He also makes some political statements in some of the darker works like “Mount Fuji in Red”, which warn against the transgressions of man against nature. The ideal is seen in the final dream “Village of the Waterwheels.” Here, an idyllic, pastoral picture is painted that has humans both in perfect harmony with the natural world but also with the cycle of life and death. The river down the center separates life from death (supernatural) and represents the flow of time and passage of events. There is a trove of interpretation in Dreams. See what you can dream up yourself.

Brooke, Michael. Akira Kurosawa. IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 31 May 2016.