Akira Kurosawa's Dreams
3/17/2026:
This is my 12th Akira Kurosawa feature and the first new one I have seen in a while. It's also my 3rd Kurosawa feature in color.
This is an anthology of vignettes drawn from Kurosawa’s own dreams. This was his third to last film and it feels like a passion project that he wanted to make sure he could get done!
I would eventually like to review all of these individually, but I will keep my longer thoughts to just my three favorites this time around. All of these have the most excellent use of color and a fantastic quality to the film. It was like I was watching moving paintings instead of pictures and the only films I have seen that I can compare to the scope of it are Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters and Kwaidan. As can be expected, Akira Kurosawa is a legend for a reason, and it's on full display here.
In all of these shorts there was only one that I didn't like as much as the others and it was still great. It was called "The Blizzard", and it just felt out of place with it's setting. I could tell it was based on a dream, but as I said, it stands out as being too different. It's still good though! I wonder if I will like it more with a second watch!
Anyway, the three shorts I would like to spotlight that I loved and would give them 10/10 as shorts are as follows!
1. The Peach Orchard
2. Crows
3. Mount Fuji in Red
The Peach Orchard is a wonderful little short that is so beautiful with how vibrant everything is. Not just from the flowers, but from the fields, the costumes, and the sky. The saturation was cranked up to max, and I wanted to take a bite out of it like a juicy peach. I love the dance on the hills and how pretty everything looked in this!
Crows is a short, that is literally just a moving painting and the set of the bridge they made in this just astounded me. I wonder just how long it took to make that set and if it was used in anything else. The rest of the short is a fun adventure talking to Vincent Van Gogh who is played by Martin Scorsese!!! It's a visually stunning short and it would be the one I recommend to show other people if you had to pick one!
Mount Fuji in Red is a rather grim short, but is also fascinating in how it played into the fears of potential nuclear disasters at the time. It's so simply done, but is horrifyingly bleak. I think it's rather more ominous today after seeing what happened with the Fukushima nuclear accident. This short was super impactful and is my favorite from the whole bunch. I love how plain it is with showing the horrors and reminds me of a dram I had myself one time. I would love to go more in depth about this one but it deserves a full watch on your own.
There you have it! This anthology has so much to it and maybe you will get more out of it from the other shorts I didn't talk about it. I like them all and love quite a few! It's really a great movie and you should all check out out!
This is my 12th Akira Kurosawa feature and the first new one I have seen in a while. It's also my 3rd Kurosawa feature in color.
This is an anthology of vignettes drawn from Kurosawa’s own dreams. This was his third to last film and it feels like a passion project that he wanted to make sure he could get done!
I would eventually like to review all of these individually, but I will keep my longer thoughts to just my three favorites this time around. All of these have the most excellent use of color and a fantastic quality to the film. It was like I was watching moving paintings instead of pictures and the only films I have seen that I can compare to the scope of it are Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters and Kwaidan. As can be expected, Akira Kurosawa is a legend for a reason, and it's on full display here.
In all of these shorts there was only one that I didn't like as much as the others and it was still great. It was called "The Blizzard", and it just felt out of place with it's setting. I could tell it was based on a dream, but as I said, it stands out as being too different. It's still good though! I wonder if I will like it more with a second watch!
Anyway, the three shorts I would like to spotlight that I loved and would give them 10/10 as shorts are as follows!
1. The Peach Orchard
2. Crows
3. Mount Fuji in Red
The Peach Orchard is a wonderful little short that is so beautiful with how vibrant everything is. Not just from the flowers, but from the fields, the costumes, and the sky. The saturation was cranked up to max, and I wanted to take a bite out of it like a juicy peach. I love the dance on the hills and how pretty everything looked in this!
Crows is a short, that is literally just a moving painting and the set of the bridge they made in this just astounded me. I wonder just how long it took to make that set and if it was used in anything else. The rest of the short is a fun adventure talking to Vincent Van Gogh who is played by Martin Scorsese!!! It's a visually stunning short and it would be the one I recommend to show other people if you had to pick one!
Mount Fuji in Red is a rather grim short, but is also fascinating in how it played into the fears of potential nuclear disasters at the time. It's so simply done, but is horrifyingly bleak. I think it's rather more ominous today after seeing what happened with the Fukushima nuclear accident. This short was super impactful and is my favorite from the whole bunch. I love how plain it is with showing the horrors and reminds me of a dram I had myself one time. I would love to go more in depth about this one but it deserves a full watch on your own.
There you have it! This anthology has so much to it and maybe you will get more out of it from the other shorts I didn't talk about it. I like them all and love quite a few! It's really a great movie and you should all check out out!
Mini Review: Kurosawa’s Dreams is my 12th film from him and only my third in color. The anthology feels like a late‑career passion project, each vignette bursting with painterly visuals and incredible use of color. Only “The Blizzard” didn’t fully land for me, though it’s still good. My standout shorts—The Peach Orchard, Crows, and Mount Fuji in Red—are stunning, memorable, and easily all 10/10 for me!
Watch the Trailer