Akira Kurosawa

Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams

Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams

Unfolding in a series of eight mythic vignettes, this late work by Akira Kurosawa was inspired by the beloved director’s own nighttime visions, along with stories from Japanese folklore. In a visually sumptuous journey through the master’s imagination, tales of childlike wonder give way to apocalyptic apparitions: a young boy stumbles on a fox wedding in a forest; a soldier confronts the ghosts of the war dead; a power plant meltdown smothers a seaside landscape in radioactive fumes. Interspersed with reflections on the redemptive power of creation, including a richly textured tribute to Vincent van Gogh (who is played by Martin Scorsese), Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams is both a showcase for its maker’s artistry at its most unbridled and a deeply personal lament for a world at the mercy of human ignorance.

Share

Film Info

  • Japan
  • 1990
  • 120 minutes
  • Color
  • 1.85:1
  • Japanese
  • Spine #842

Special Features

  • New, restored 4K digital transfer, supervised by cinematographer Shoji Ueda, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • New audio commentary featuring film scholar Stephen Prince
  • Making of “Dreams” (1990), a 150-minute documentary shot on set and directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi
  • New interview with production manager Teruyo Nogami
  • New interview with assistant director Takashi Koizumi
  • Kurosawa’s Way (2011), a fifty-minute documentary by Kurosawa’s longtime translator Catherine Cadou, featuring interviews with filmmakers Bernardo Bertolucci, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Martin Scorsese, Hayao Miyazaki, and others
  • Trailer
  • New English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: An essay by film critic Bilge Ebiri and Kurosawa’s script for a never-filmed ninth dream, introduced by Nogami

    Cover painting by Akira Kurosawa

Purchase Options

Special Features

  • New, restored 4K digital transfer, supervised by cinematographer Shoji Ueda, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • New audio commentary featuring film scholar Stephen Prince
  • Making of “Dreams” (1990), a 150-minute documentary shot on set and directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi
  • New interview with production manager Teruyo Nogami
  • New interview with assistant director Takashi Koizumi
  • Kurosawa’s Way (2011), a fifty-minute documentary by Kurosawa’s longtime translator Catherine Cadou, featuring interviews with filmmakers Bernardo Bertolucci, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Martin Scorsese, Hayao Miyazaki, and others
  • Trailer
  • New English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: An essay by film critic Bilge Ebiri and Kurosawa’s script for a never-filmed ninth dream, introduced by Nogami

    Cover painting by Akira Kurosawa
Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams
Cast
Akira Terao
“I”
Mitsuko Baisho
Mother
Mieko Harada
Snow Woman
Toshie Negishi
Woman carrying a child (“Mount Fuji in Red”)
Mitsunori Isaki
“I” as an adolescent (“The Peach Orchard”)
Toshihiko Nakano
“I” as a young boy (“Sunshine Through the Rain”)
Yoshitaka Zushi
Private Noguchi (“The Tunnel”)
Hisashi Igawa
Power plant worker (“Mount Fuji in Red”)
Chosuke Ikariya
Weeping demon
Chishu Ryu
Old man (“The Village of the Water Mills”)
Martin Scorsese
Vincent van Gogh
Kiku-no Kai Dancers
Fox wedding dancers
Misato Tate
Peach Fairy
Mieko Suzuki
Sister (“The Peach Orchard”)
Masayuki Yui
Member of the climbing team (“The Blizzard”)
Shu Nakajima
Member of the climbing team (“The Blizzard”)
Sakae Kimura
Member of the climbing team (“The Blizzard”)
Tessho Yamashita
Second lieutenant
Members of the 20-ki No Kai
Third platoon
Credits
Director
Akira Kurosawa
Written by
Akira Kurosawa
Produced by
Hisao Kurosawa
Produced by
Mike Y. Inoue
Executive producer
Steven Spielberg
Creative consultant
Ishiro Honda
Production manager
Teruyo Nogami
Cinematography by
Takao Saito
Cinematography by
Shoji Ueda
Art direction by
Yoshiro Muraki
Art direction by
Akira Sakuragi
Production design by
Yoshiro Muraki
Production design by
Akira Sakuragi
Costume design by
Emi Wada
Music by
Shinichiro Ikebe
Film editing by
Tome Minami
Visual effects by
Industrial Light & Magic
“Sun Shining Through the Rain” fox parade choreographed by
Michiyo Hata

Related Films

1/6

Trailer for Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams

2/6
3/6
4/6
5/6
6/6

Current

Teruyo Nogami on Working with Akira Kurosawa
Teruyo Nogami on Working with Akira Kurosawa
A dazzling mix of folklore, myth, and the director’s own nighttime visions, Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams represents a late-career burst of creativity from one of the masters of Japanese cinema. Over the course of the film’s eight surreal episodes, K…
Sneak Peeks — Nov 18, 2016
Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams: Quiet Devastation
Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams: Quiet Devastation

Akira Kurosawa lays bare his deepest fears in this visually astonishing interpretation of folklore, myth, and the director’s own dreams and memories.

By Bilge Ebiri

Essays — Nov 15, 2016
The Color of Dreams
The Color of Dreams

While in Tokyo to work on Akira Kurosawa’s 1990 film, our technical director got a glimpse at some of the filmmaker’s original drawings that he used to shoot the movie.

By Lee Kline

Tech Corner — Jan 7, 2016
Abbas Kiarostami’s Final Film, Now in Theaters
Abbas Kiarostami’s Final Film, Now in Theaters

Opening today at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, Iranian master Abbas Kiarostami’s final film, 24 Frames, is a subtle meditation on time and perception.

In Theaters — Feb 2, 2018
From the Kurosawa Archives
From the Kurosawa Archives
With a monumental body of work spanning nearly six decades, thirty feature films, and a staggering array of styles and genres, Akira Kurosawa has been a cornerstone of our collection since we released Seven Samurai as our second Criterion edition in …
Short Takes — Mar 23, 2017
New UK Releases for November 2016
New UK Releases for November 2016
This month, we’ve brought two new Criterion editions to the United Kingdom: Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams, a visually sumptuous showcase of the Japanese master at the height of his imaginative powers, and Punch-Drunk Love, Paul Thomas Anderson’s deli…
FYI — Nov 22, 2016
The Art of the Dream Sequence
The Art of the Dream Sequence
Artists across all mediums have long been obsessed with the challenge of evoking dream states, but film—with its oneiric combinations of light and shadow, and its ability to manipulate time and space—has particularly uncanny access to our nightti…
Short Takes — Nov 18, 2016

Explore

Akira Kurosawa

Writer, Director

Akira Kurosawa
Akira Kurosawa

Arguably the most celebrated Japanese filmmaker of all time, Akira Kurosawa had a career that spanned from the Second World War to the early nineties and that stands as a monument of artistic, entertainment, and personal achievement. His best-known films remain his samurai epics Seven Samurai and Yojimbo, but his intimate dramas, such as Ikiru and High and Low, are just as searing. The first serious phase of Kurosawa’s career came during the postwar era, with Drunken Angel and Stray Dog, gritty dramas about people on the margins of society that featured the first notable appearances by Toshiro Mifune, the director’s longtime leading man. Kurosawa would subsequently gain international fame with Rashomon, a breakthrough in nonlinear narrative and sumptuous visuals. Following a personal breakdown in the late sixties, Kurosawa rebounded by expanding his dark brand of humanism into new stylistic territory, with films such as Kagemusha and Ran, visionary, color, epic ruminations on modern man and nature.

More Akira Kurosawa View All