ProNihil

I have seen "Dreams" about three times now. I cannot get past that it is one of the most hauntingly beautiful films I have ever seen. Kurosawa didn't focus so much on the characters as their surroundings in this one, and was able to tell an incredible tale, or many, through the simple use of imagry rather than dialogue or fancy camera angles.

I don't know. Some of the images in this series of shorts really take me on a ride I couldn't have imagined. It is as if Kurosawa was able to speak directly to my soul, if there is such a thing, and that he is telling me that he knows what goes on in the dark places, the places where only shadows live and my conscious self is afraid to tread.

Masterful, absolutely masterful!

kwigibo

I only saw about half of it on TV, but the imagry blew me away. One of a very few films that is just beautiful to look at, I wish more film-makers did the same.

dangin

The laserdisc version has a bit on the back cover about how each time you watch it a different short will be your favorite. It is an outstanding film, no questions asked. The short "Crows" about Van Gogh inspired me during film school to shoot a period piece about Picasso. Mine wasn't as good.

Dale Merlin

I saw "Dreams" at the [plug] American Film Institute's newly restored Silver Theater in Silver Spring, MD [/plug], last weekend, and I have to say I nodded off several times during the film. I liked the first and last episodes, but the lack of a story line caused me to feel that the other segments were more or less boring. It was also more than a bit tendentious in a "humans are destroying the world" vein. Although that observation may be true, I don't go to films expecting to be hit over the head with it repeatedly (and so heavy-handedly).

The AFI employee who introduced the film told the audience that Michael Jeck, a local expert in Japanese films, has said that "Dreams" is Kurosawa's worst film. I believe Jeck qualified that statement by saying that even Kurosawa's worst film is many times better than the best of many other filmmakers' oeuvres. Still, after seeing the film and being mainly unimpressed, I thought I would play devil's advocate, having seen the paeans already posted. I'm not trying to belittle anyone's opinion, just offering another point of view.