Akira Kurosawa directs this overrated drama whose pretentiousness is almost unmatched (perhaps only "Irreversible" trumps it). The vast majority of this film relentlessly wastes the viewer's time and patience by showing characters walking around aimlessly. One cannot possibly imagine a greater waste of running time than watching a generic character trotting ever so slowly for minutes on end while encountering absolutely nothing of importance or interest. Of course, if one wants recognition and prestigious awards from the art house crowd (as well as a high rating on IMDb), this is the formula for success.
Here's a summary of each dream.
Dream 1 – a kid encounters a group of people who act like animals; the kid walks, the animal people walk – very very slowly.
Dream 2 – a kid encounters a group of people who act like flowers; the kid walks, the flower people dance – very very slowly.
Dream 3 – a group of guys walk around in a snowstorm – very very slowly.
Dream 4 – some guy walks down a tunnel – very very slowly, then tries to explain death to a group of really stupid dead people.
Dream 5 – some guy has a completely meaningless conversation with Van Gogh, then briskly walks around inside various paintings.
Dream 6 – nuclear reactors explode, people die, and the chapter ends with an absolute moron trying to defend himself against radioactivity by waving his coat in the air.
Dream 7 – some guy walks around aimlessly in the fog, then meets a bunch of nutty mutant dudes who contribute a "mourning" ceremony that is perhaps the cheesiest, most poorly acted scene in motion picture history.
Dream 8 – a watermill scene with some decent conversations about nature and science.
Every dream repeats the same formula: add 14 minutes of useless filler to 30 seconds of actual content. This is the exact opposite of high-quality film-making. It's sanctimonious, pretentious, self-righteous trash.
The unpopular view is that Akira Kurosawa is an overrated director who was never really liked in his home country in the first place, and that it took a group of pretentious, art-house snobs from America to artificially inflate his "greatness" to the rest of the world. After seeing 30 of his films, I'm beginning to agree with this sentiment.
Here's a summary of each dream.
Dream 1 – a kid encounters a group of people who act like animals; the kid walks, the animal people walk – very very slowly.
Dream 2 – a kid encounters a group of people who act like flowers; the kid walks, the flower people dance – very very slowly.
Dream 3 – a group of guys walk around in a snowstorm – very very slowly.
Dream 4 – some guy walks down a tunnel – very very slowly, then tries to explain death to a group of really stupid dead people.
Dream 5 – some guy has a completely meaningless conversation with Van Gogh, then briskly walks around inside various paintings.
Dream 6 – nuclear reactors explode, people die, and the chapter ends with an absolute moron trying to defend himself against radioactivity by waving his coat in the air.
Dream 7 – some guy walks around aimlessly in the fog, then meets a bunch of nutty mutant dudes who contribute a "mourning" ceremony that is perhaps the cheesiest, most poorly acted scene in motion picture history.
Dream 8 – a watermill scene with some decent conversations about nature and science.
Every dream repeats the same formula: add 14 minutes of useless filler to 30 seconds of actual content. This is the exact opposite of high-quality film-making. It's sanctimonious, pretentious, self-righteous trash.
The unpopular view is that Akira Kurosawa is an overrated director who was never really liked in his home country in the first place, and that it took a group of pretentious, art-house snobs from America to artificially inflate his "greatness" to the rest of the world. After seeing 30 of his films, I'm beginning to agree with this sentiment.