/(夢 Yume, aka Akira Kurosawa's Dreams, I Saw a Dream Like This, or Such Dreams I Have Dreamed) is a 1990 magical realism film based on actual dreams of the film's director, Akira Kurosawa at different stages of his life. The film is more imagery than dialogue. The alternative titles ("I Saw a Dream Like This") are a translation of the opening line of Ten Nights of Dreams, by Natsume Sōseki, which begins: Konna yume wo mita (こんな夢を見た). The film was screened out of competition at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival.[1]
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Dreams
The film consists of several dreams based on Kurosawa's own, throughout his life. The dreams are eight separate segments in the following order:
Sunshine Through The Rain
There is an old legend in Japan that states that when the sun is shining through the rain, the kitsune (foxes) have their weddings (this is a common theme globally – see sunshower). In this first dream, a boy defies the wish of a woman, possibly his mother, to remain at home during a day with such weather. From behind a large tree in the nearby forest, he witnesses the slow wedding procession of the kitsune. Unfortunately, he is spotted by the foxes and runs. When he tries to return home, the same woman says that a fox had come by the house, leaving behind a tantō knife. The woman gives the knife to the boy, implying that he must commit suicide. The woman asks the boy to go and beg forgiveness from the foxes, although they are known to be unforgiving, refusing to let him in unless he does so. The boy sets off into the mountains, towards the place under the rainbow in search for the kitsune's home.
The Peach Orchard
Hina Matsuri, the Doll Festival, traditionally takes place in spring when the peach blossoms are in full bloom. The dolls that go on display at this time, they say, are representative of the peach trees and their pink blossoms. One boy's family, however, has chopped down their peach orchard, so the boy feels a sense of loss during this year's festival. After being scolded by his older sister the boy spots a small girl running out the front door. He follows her to the now-treeless orchard, where the dolls from his sister's collection have come to life and are standing before him on the slopes of the orchard. The living dolls, revealing themselves to be the spirits of the peach trees, berate the boy about chopping down the precious trees. But after realizing how much he loved the blossoms, they agree to give him one last glance at the peach trees by way of a slow and beautiful dance to Etenraku. After they disappear the boy finds the small girl walking among the treeless orchard before seeing a single peach tree sprouting in her place.
The Blizzard
A group of four mountaineers struggle up a mountain path during a horrendous blizzard. It has been snowing for three days and the men are dispirited and ready to give up. One by one they stop walking, giving in to the snow and sure death. The leader endeavors to push on, but he too, stops in the snow. A strange woman (possibly the Yuki-onna of Japanese myth) appears out of nowhere and attempts to lure the last conscious man to his death - give into the snow and the storm, she urges him on, into reverie, into sleep, into certain death. But finding some heart, deep within, he shakes off his stupor and her entreaties, to discover that the storm has abated, and that their camp is only a few feet away.
The Tunnel
A Japanese army officer is traveling down a deserted road at dusk, on his way back home from fighting in the Second World War. He comes to a large concrete pedestrian tunnel that seems to go on forever into the darkness. Suddenly, an angry, almost demonic-looking anti-tank dog (strapped with explosives) runs out of the tunnel and snarls deeply at him. He proceeds with his walk, afraid, into the tunnel. He comes out the other side, but then witnesses something horrific — the yūrei (ghost) of one of the soldiers (Private Noguchi) whom he had charge over in the war comes out of the tunnel behind him, his face a light blue, signifying that he is dead.
The soldier seems not to believe he's dead, but the officer convinces him and the soldier returns into the darkness of the tunnel. Just when he thinks he's seen the worst, the officer sees his entire third platoon marching out of the tunnel. They too are dead, with light blue faces. He tries to convince them that they're dead, and he expresses his deep-seated guilt about letting them all die in the war. They stand mute, in reply to his words. He then orders them to about face, and then march back into the tunnel. Lastly, we see a second appearance of the hellish dog, from the beginning of this dream.
This is one of three "nightmares" featured in the film.
Akira Kurosawa's long time friend Ishirō Honda may have helped to direct, or have directed this piece entirely. The two always spoke of filming a story of a dead soldier returning from war.
Crows
A brilliantly colored vignette featuring director Martin Scorsese as Vincent Van Gogh. An art student (a character wearing Kurosawa's trademark hat who provides the POV for the rest of the film) finds himself inside the vibrant and sometimes chaotic world inside Van Gogh's artwork, where he meets the artist in a field and converses with him. The student loses track of the artist (who is missing an ear and nearing the end of his life) and travels through other works trying to find him. Van Gogh's painting Wheat Field with Crows is an important element in this dream. This Segment features Prelude No. 15 in D-flat major ("Raindrop") by Chopin. The visual effects for this particular segment were provided by George Lucas and his special effects group Industrial Light and Magic.[citation needed]
This is the only segment where the characters do not speak Japanese.
Mount Fuji in Red
The film's second nightmare sequence. A large nuclear power plant near Mount Fuji has begun to melt down, painting the sky a horrendous red and sending the millions of Japanese citizens desperately fleeing into the ocean. Three adults and two children are left behind on land, but they soon realize that the radiation will kill them anyway.
The Weeping Demon
A man (possibly Kurosawa himself) finds himself wandering around a misty, bleak mountainous terrain. He meets a strange oni-like man, who is actually a mutated human with one horn. The "demon" explains that there had been a nuclear holocaust which resulted in the loss of nature and animals, enormous dandelions and humans sprouting horns, which cause them so much agony that you can hear them howling during the night, but, according to the demon, they can't die, which makes their agony even worse. The last of the three "nightmare" sequences. This is actually a post-apocalyptic retelling of a classic Buddhist fable of the same name.
Village of the Watermills
A young man finds himself entering a peaceful, stream-laden village. The traveller meets an old, wise man who is fixing a broken watermill wheel. The elder explains that the people of his village decided long ago to forsake the polluting influence of modern technology and return to a happier, cleaner era of society. They have chosen spiritual health over convenience, and the traveller is surprised but intrigued by this notion.
At the end of the sequence (and the film), a funeral procession for an old woman takes place in the village, which instead of mourning, the people celebrate joyfully as the proper end to a good life. This segment was filmed at the Daio Wasabi farm in the Nagano Prefecture. The film ends with a haunting yet melancholic melody from the excerpts of "In the Village" , part of the Caucasian Sketches, Suite No. 1 by the Russian composer Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov.
Cast
- Akira Terao as "I"
- Chishu Ryu as "Old Man"
- Martin Scorsese as "Vincent van Gogh"
References
- ^ "Festival de Cannes: Dreams". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 2009-08-08.
External links
- Dreams at the Internet Movie Database
- Dreams at AllRovi
- Dreams (Japanese) at the Japanese Movie Database
2010/2/10
情圖文並茂
『天気待ち 監督・黒澤明とともに』 （文藝春秋、2001年、文春文庫、2004年）
等雲到：與黑澤明導演在一起
http://publish.dbw.cn 2009年12月11日 08:54:37
又名:天?待監督・?澤明
作者: (日)野上照代
譯者:吳菲
副標題:與黑澤明導演在一起
ISBN: 9787208087088
頁數: 276
定價: 28.00元
出版社:上海人民出版社
裝幀:平裝
出版年: 2010年1月
簡介· · · · · ·
《蛤蟆的油》之續本講述《羅生門》之後的黑澤明
黑澤明導演讓他的自傳《蛤蟆的油》結束於1950年，正是他的電影《羅生門》為全世界認識的那一年。他在自傳中說：『寫自傳的我不能穿過這個門(《羅生門》)再前進了。《羅生門》以後的我，要從《羅生門》之後我作品的人物中去認識。』
那一年，野上照代第一次遇見黑澤明，並開始了長達半個世紀的合作，被黑澤導演稱為『我的左膀右臂』。她參與了黑澤導演《羅生門》之後幾乎全部作品的拍攝，見證了這個偉大電影人的大起大落，故而本書實為《蛤蟆的油》之續本。通過野上照代的筆，黑澤導演的剛強與淡定，認真與從容，以及『等雲到』的那份堅持，都一一在讀者面前展現。
野上照代：
我多麼希望能夠再有一次機會，跟黑澤攝制組一起在外景地一邊等雲到，一邊在火堆旁烤著火聽黑澤先生閑聊，跟大家一起為微不足道的小事開懷大笑。然而，那已是不再復返的幸福時光。
如果黑澤明先生讀了這本書，他一定會說：『那時的艱辛可不是這麼回事，你還是不明白！』
作者簡介· · · · · ·
野上照代(Nogami Teruyo )，1927年生於東京。黑澤制作公司制作經理。1949年進入大映京都攝影所擔任見習場記。1950年，黑澤明導演為拍攝《羅生門》來到京都太秦的京都攝影所，野上照代自此開始為黑澤明導演工作。在與黑澤明導演合作近半個世紀的時間裡，除去在松竹映畫拍攝的《白癡》之外，野上參與了黑澤明導演所有作品的拍攝。此外，她也進行文學創作，1984年小說《致父親的安魂曲》獲得第五屆『人類女性紀錄片獎』優秀獎，並被改編成電影《母親》，於2008年上映。
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