"Dreams" Blogs and Blabs

Dreams is a profoundly personal film by a hugely significant filmmaker in the twilight of his career and life. It is eight short stories that make up one great visual film. The film is apparently based on various dreams that Akira Kurosawa had throughout his life. The first is Sunshine through the Rain and follows a young boy who witnesses a kitsune wedding. The second is called The Peach Orchard and takes place during Hina Matsuri or the Doll Festival. A boy's family cuts down their peach blossoms before the festival and dolls from his sister's collection become animated. The Blizzard follows snowbound survivors on a mountain whose will to live is tested by a mysterious female spirit. The Tunnel tells the story of a dead soldier returning from war. The Crows includes an appearance by Martin Scorsese as Vincent Van Gogh. This stunning vignette follows a Kurosawa-like character that travels in and out of Van Gogh's paintings. The nightmarish sequences include the apocalyptic Mount Fuji in Red and The Weeping Demon, which both no doubt touch on crucial cultural anxieties regarding nuclear technology. Finally, Village of the Watermills ends the film with death, but also with jubilant celebration of life in general. I'm tempted to assume this is just Kurosawa's subconscious literally translated to the screen. The images in Dreams are carefully symbolic and although they don't form one message at large, it does provide broad lessons and general wisdom. It also provides some absolutely gorgeous cinematography.
It can be criticised as being slow. If the thought of walking through an art gallery and taking several minutes to sit or stand in front of some pictures to fully study and appreciate their beauty seems "slow" to you then you might not like it. However, if you can imagine yourself enjoying watching an expressionist/art noveau/surrealist set of pictures come to life on your TV screen then you might like it.
Story-wise, the dreams play with the themes of death and loss, both human and of nature. The displacement of Japanese forests, the lack of safety standards at nuclear power plants, the loss of traditional Japan, the pointless loss of lives in war...sad themes at best. Yet at the end, hope is offered, in a small nook and cranny, like a flower blooming amongst concrete.
I liked the movie for it's different approach and I would like to watch other Kurosawa films to get an even better feel for the direction and imagery of his thoughts.