WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema: Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams 0:00:02.440 --> 0:00:08.400 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:13.039 --> 0:00:15.080 Hey you welcome to Weird House Cinema. 0:00:15.200 --> 0:00:17.959 This is Rob Lamb and this is Joe McCormick. And 0:00:18.040 --> 0:00:21.000 today on Weird House Cinema, we're going to be talking 0:00:21.040 --> 0:00:27.280 about Akira Kurosawa's nineteen ninety anthology film Dreams, which is 0:00:27.480 --> 0:00:29.800 exactly what it says on the box. This is a 0:00:30.000 --> 0:00:34.680 collection of eight short vignettes that take the form of 0:00:34.920 --> 0:00:39.479 dreams and nightmares. I had never seen this film before 0:00:39.600 --> 0:00:41.440 this week when I picked it out for the show, 0:00:41.800 --> 0:00:45.519 and I love this movie. But if you watch it, 0:00:45.600 --> 0:00:47.920 you should know what you're getting into, especially if you've 0:00:48.040 --> 0:00:52.640 liked other Corosawa movies. This is not Seven Samurai that's like, 0:00:52.760 --> 0:00:56.560 you know, a gripping, exciting story. This is a movie 0:00:56.600 --> 0:01:00.520 that really asks for your patients as an audience member. 0:01:01.160 --> 0:01:05.640 The pace is moody and slow. There is no central 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:09.640 or overarching plot. There are some themes and character types 0:01:09.640 --> 0:01:14.039 that recur, but each of the eight short stories is 0:01:14.160 --> 0:01:21.360 essentially self contained, and they partake of extremely varied tones, settings, 0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:25.400 and pacing. Some of the stories are like a weird 0:01:25.480 --> 0:01:31.039 kind of improvisational fairy tale. Some are frightening, baffling encounters 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:35.399 with monstrous entities. Some are kind of idyllic meetings between 0:01:35.400 --> 0:01:39.160 a curious protagonist and a thoughtful character, and some are 0:01:39.240 --> 0:01:42.760 apocalyptic visions of a doomed earth. You really get all 0:01:42.760 --> 0:01:44.720 different kinds of dreams in this movie. 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:48.120 Yeah, Yeah, this is a great film. I'm so glad 0:01:48.120 --> 0:01:51.120 you picked this one, Joe. This is not a Chrosall 0:01:51.200 --> 0:01:54.720 film I'd ever seen either. Generally, I'd seen just a 0:01:54.760 --> 0:02:00.520 handful of his Samurai epics, Throne of Blood being from 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:01.160 years back. 0:02:01.240 --> 0:02:02.520 But it's of my favorites too. 0:02:02.680 --> 0:02:05.400 Yeah, but I had not. I had not rewatched or 0:02:05.440 --> 0:02:07.880 watched any Krosawa recently, so it was great to dive 0:02:07.920 --> 0:02:11.720 into this one. And yeah, I absolutely agree. This movie 0:02:11.800 --> 0:02:14.160 is true to the title, just steeped in the texture 0:02:14.200 --> 0:02:17.440 of dream in a way that is I think, far 0:02:17.639 --> 0:02:21.080 far more sublime than the mere trappings of the cinematic 0:02:21.120 --> 0:02:26.760 dream sequence. Curasawa, with signature excellence here generates a strong 0:02:26.919 --> 0:02:30.320 ambience of dreams, often, or at least it seems to me, 0:02:30.760 --> 0:02:34.480 with a one two punch of first intriguing monotony and 0:02:34.520 --> 0:02:36.400 then this emotional upwelling. 0:02:37.360 --> 0:02:39.120 Oh yeah, I think I know what you mean that 0:02:39.280 --> 0:02:43.079 many of these stories have a kind of earlier middle 0:02:43.160 --> 0:02:48.720 section where something is kind of either slow and contemplative 0:02:49.000 --> 0:02:53.280 or frustratingly repetitive and monotonous, and then suddenly there is 0:02:53.320 --> 0:02:57.040 a breakthrough. There's some kind of catharsis where something of 0:02:57.160 --> 0:02:59.399 powerful emotional significance happens. 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:03.679 Yeah. Yeah, And I found this very very interesting and 0:03:04.040 --> 0:03:07.200 very true to my experiences with dreams and my recollection 0:03:07.240 --> 0:03:10.920 of my own dreams. Intriguing monotony. Here is not a 0:03:10.960 --> 0:03:13.639 dig at the picture or a kursawa. I think it's 0:03:13.720 --> 0:03:17.160 it's ultimately kind of a revelation that we see dreams 0:03:17.480 --> 0:03:21.000 presented in this manner, where like you know, generally our 0:03:21.080 --> 0:03:23.160 dream the dreams that we have night to night are 0:03:23.200 --> 0:03:27.040 not worthy of cinematic adaptation, but I think people may 0:03:27.120 --> 0:03:29.960 recognize this basic form. Like I had this dream and 0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:32.480 I was like I was trying to put together some 0:03:32.680 --> 0:03:35.320 Ikia furniture and I couldn't put it together. And this 0:03:35.520 --> 0:03:39.120 just kept happening for what seemed like hours, and then 0:03:39.160 --> 0:03:41.080 my dad showed up and I had a conversation with 0:03:41.120 --> 0:03:43.640 my long deceased father, that sort of thing, you know, 0:03:43.720 --> 0:03:47.880 with so like a one two punch of monotony, lost 0:03:47.920 --> 0:03:51.640 in some sort of an environment or a situation that 0:03:52.040 --> 0:03:55.360 may not have anything that's really driving it forward, and 0:03:55.400 --> 0:03:59.200 then there's some sort of emotional upwelling. It's almost like 0:03:59.280 --> 0:04:03.000 the dream is the garden of the subconscious, populated seemingly 0:04:03.000 --> 0:04:06.920 by weeds of various thoughts, memories, and observations, and then 0:04:07.760 --> 0:04:12.800 some powerful emotional resonance emerges through and into this dream garden, 0:04:13.160 --> 0:04:14.240 taking on its trapping. 0:04:14.520 --> 0:04:16.640 I think that's a great way to put it. Yeah, 0:04:16.680 --> 0:04:18.000 a lot of these stories are like that. 0:04:18.560 --> 0:04:21.920 Yeah, and that that emotional upwelling. It might be love, 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:25.400 it might be fear, it might be regret. So in 0:04:25.720 --> 0:04:27.599 any way, what I'm trying to say is yes to 0:04:27.680 --> 0:04:30.640 all of that. Dreams is not a fast paced film. 0:04:30.760 --> 0:04:33.360 If you're more familiar with Chrosawa's action and drama films, 0:04:33.560 --> 0:04:36.919 this is a different beast. I also want to highlight 0:04:37.000 --> 0:04:41.120 that I watched this film with a fever. I'm I've 0:04:41.240 --> 0:04:45.680 just returned from some extensive travel and something came back 0:04:45.720 --> 0:04:48.520 with me, and this is a This is a good 0:04:48.560 --> 0:04:51.080 fever film. I have to say. If you find yourself 0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:54.599 sort of drifting in and out, this is the perfect 0:04:54.600 --> 0:04:56.400 film to do it. There was a time or two 0:04:56.440 --> 0:05:00.360 where I caught myself falling asleep a little bit, which 0:05:00.400 --> 0:05:03.200 sometimes happens when you become horizontal and you watch films. 0:05:03.520 --> 0:05:07.000 But it's extra interesting with this picture because like Kurrasawa 0:05:07.000 --> 0:05:10.960 has already put you into the monotony of the dream sequence, 0:05:11.000 --> 0:05:13.479 you know, into the dream world, and so you find 0:05:13.520 --> 0:05:15.880 yourself slipping into that dream world for real. 0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:18.240 I feel like all of them would be good to 0:05:18.680 --> 0:05:21.400 fall asleep and then wake up again, to accept Mount 0:05:21.400 --> 0:05:24.480 Fuji and Red. That one's got to be real tough 0:05:24.560 --> 0:05:26.520 to kind of suddenly realize what's going on. 0:05:26.800 --> 0:05:29.520 Yeah, that one was, we'll get to that one. That 0:05:29.560 --> 0:05:32.840 one was the rougher one for me. But anyway, this 0:05:32.920 --> 0:05:35.760 is our first Karrosawa film on Weird House Cinema. We've 0:05:35.800 --> 0:05:38.160 of course mentioned him numerous times in passing on the 0:05:38.200 --> 0:05:41.200 show because, of course, a it's impossible to discuss Japanese 0:05:41.200 --> 0:05:44.480 cinema without acknowledging a Kira Kurosawa. And you know, it's 0:05:44.480 --> 0:05:46.880 certainly the case too with something like a Godzilla film, 0:05:46.920 --> 0:05:50.720 even because those several of the Godzilla films we've talked 0:05:50.760 --> 0:05:54.520 about in the show were filmed by Ishil Hondakrasawa's friend 0:05:54.680 --> 0:05:58.160 and a frequent collaborator under tow Host Studios. And then 0:05:58.200 --> 0:06:00.320 on top of all of this, it's ultimately impop well 0:06:00.360 --> 0:06:05.240 to discuss cinema at all without eventually referencing Krosawa, as 0:06:05.240 --> 0:06:08.080 he's one of the most famed and influential filmmakers of 0:06:08.120 --> 0:06:08.520 all time. 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:10.840 Yeah. I would say the majority of his films, at 0:06:10.880 --> 0:06:13.480 least the ones I've seen, are not really in the 0:06:13.520 --> 0:06:16.600 weird house cinema space, and that I absolutely love them. 0:06:16.600 --> 0:06:20.400 But they're a little bit more straightforwardly realism bound, you know, 0:06:20.440 --> 0:06:24.240 they're often realistic period stories. They don't really get into 0:06:24.279 --> 0:06:26.480 the kind of weird genres we talk about, though there 0:06:26.480 --> 0:06:29.000 are some very weird things in Throne of Blood, even 0:06:29.040 --> 0:06:31.000 though it is basically a Macbeth adaptation. 0:06:31.440 --> 0:06:35.000 Yeah, Throwing of Blood is the one that previously I 0:06:35.080 --> 0:06:37.960 considered that to be the Corosawa film we might get to. 0:06:38.520 --> 0:06:40.960 But this, I think was isn't even better fit for this. 0:06:41.040 --> 0:06:44.000 Oh yeah, because obviously this is dreams, and what's weirder 0:06:44.040 --> 0:06:46.720 than dreams? I mean, dreams are dreams are the classic 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:49.160 weird house cinema. Before there was cinema, there was the 0:06:49.200 --> 0:06:50.920 weird house cinema of the inner space. 0:06:51.640 --> 0:06:55.039 That's true. Oh, by the way, this is a Cura 0:06:55.120 --> 0:06:59.240 Krosawa's Dreams, or sometimes just Dreams. It's often referenced by 0:06:59.279 --> 0:07:02.840 that title. Not to be confused with nineteen ninety five's Memories, 0:07:03.320 --> 0:07:08.440 an excellent animated anthology from Kutserhiro Otamo. These are two 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:11.960 very different films, but I have caught myself on multiple 0:07:11.960 --> 0:07:15.320 occasions confusing the two titles in my mind. So I 0:07:15.360 --> 0:07:19.720 suspect I'm not alone here. Memories is anime and it's excellent. 0:07:19.760 --> 0:07:24.000 It's also an anthology. This is live action and it's Corsawa, 0:07:24.720 --> 0:07:26.000 and it's also an anthology. 0:07:26.520 --> 0:07:28.840 So I thought it might be good at the top 0:07:28.920 --> 0:07:32.040 here to go ahead and do a brief rundown of 0:07:32.080 --> 0:07:34.560 the eight different dreams in this movie, with like a 0:07:34.600 --> 0:07:37.280 one or two sentence summary of each, just so that 0:07:37.360 --> 0:07:40.040 we can refer back to them more easily as we 0:07:40.080 --> 0:07:43.520 go along, talking about the themes and the connections and stuff, 0:07:43.520 --> 0:07:45.520 and then we can talk about the plot in more 0:07:45.560 --> 0:07:49.400 detail later on. But okay, so the eight segments are. 0:07:49.440 --> 0:07:52.600 The first one is called Sunshine through the Rain. In 0:07:52.640 --> 0:07:55.920 this one, a young boy wanders into the forest during 0:07:56.000 --> 0:07:58.520 a sunshower when it's raining, but the sun is shining 0:07:58.880 --> 0:08:02.600 against his mother's ad vice, and he witnesses the marriage 0:08:02.640 --> 0:08:05.760 ceremony of the fox spirits, which is something he should 0:08:05.760 --> 0:08:09.560 not have seen. This first segment may be my favorite 0:08:09.600 --> 0:08:12.760 segment of all. I'm really excited to talk more about it. 0:08:13.520 --> 0:08:16.760 The second segment is the Peach Orchard. This takes place 0:08:16.800 --> 0:08:19.040 on a festival day in Japan called the Day of 0:08:19.240 --> 0:08:23.120 Hinomatsuri or the Dolls Day festival, sometimes the Girl's Day festival. 0:08:23.760 --> 0:08:27.320 On this day, a boy follows a spectral girl dressed 0:08:27.320 --> 0:08:30.160 in pink and white out to the terraces where a 0:08:30.160 --> 0:08:33.120 peach orchard used to grow, and the spirits of the 0:08:33.160 --> 0:08:36.440 now destroyed peach trees appear in the form of dolls 0:08:36.559 --> 0:08:38.719 and perform They talk to him, and they perform a 0:08:38.760 --> 0:08:43.320 traditional dance. The third segment is called the Blizzard. In 0:08:43.360 --> 0:08:46.559 this segment, a group of four mountain climbers are struggling 0:08:46.600 --> 0:08:49.080 to reach camp in the middle of a terrible snowstorm, 0:08:49.559 --> 0:08:52.840 and the climbers they're overwhelmed by the snow. They begin 0:08:52.920 --> 0:08:55.520 to succumb to the cold, and their leader has a 0:08:55.559 --> 0:08:59.760 blood curdling vision of a snow witch. In the fourth 0:09:00.120 --> 0:09:03.360 meant the tunnel. While walking home after the end of 0:09:03.360 --> 0:09:07.439 a war, presumably World War II, a Japanese military officer 0:09:07.440 --> 0:09:09.600 has to pass through a tunnel on a mountain road. 0:09:09.960 --> 0:09:13.600 There he meets first an angry dog strapped with explosives, 0:09:13.920 --> 0:09:16.240 and then a soldier, and then a company of soldiers 0:09:16.280 --> 0:09:21.000 who died under his command. The fifth segment crows. This 0:09:21.040 --> 0:09:24.640 one is more lighthearted. A painter is looking at the 0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:27.360 works of How are we going to say his name 0:09:27.400 --> 0:09:30.880 in this episode? I always Vincent the painter, Vincent van 0:09:30.960 --> 0:09:33.920 goch or Vincent van Go. I'm just going to say 0:09:33.960 --> 0:09:36.640 van Go. I know that's not the correct original pronunciation. 0:09:36.800 --> 0:09:38.640 I'm sorry. That's how I always learned it when I 0:09:38.640 --> 0:09:41.920 was growing up the paintings of Vincent van Go. He 0:09:43.040 --> 0:09:45.400 looks at these paintings, he admires them, and then he 0:09:45.520 --> 0:09:48.480 sort of appears within the artistic world of van Go 0:09:48.920 --> 0:09:51.760 and then finally meets the artist and learns things about 0:09:51.760 --> 0:09:56.160 his vision and kind of interfaces with his view of 0:09:56.280 --> 0:09:59.199 art and the world. After that, we get a segment 0:09:59.240 --> 0:10:01.839 called Mount fou and Red. This is where the terror 0:10:01.920 --> 0:10:05.760 really ramps up. Our Corrosawa surrogate here in many of 0:10:05.800 --> 0:10:08.280 these segments are probably in all of them, you can 0:10:08.400 --> 0:10:12.720 view the protagonist as some form of Kurusawa himself, either 0:10:12.760 --> 0:10:15.880 as a child or a sort of alternate life version 0:10:15.920 --> 0:10:20.680 of himself. In this segment, our surrogate finds himself in 0:10:20.720 --> 0:10:24.040 a massive crowd of people fleeing a disaster. We see 0:10:24.080 --> 0:10:28.760 Mount Fuji in the distance appear glowing hot, framed by explosions, 0:10:29.080 --> 0:10:31.360 and then a man in a suit appears to explain 0:10:31.440 --> 0:10:34.880 that these explosions are caused by a meltdown at a 0:10:35.000 --> 0:10:38.000 nuclear power plant, and the people are being killed by 0:10:38.080 --> 0:10:41.160 clouds full of radioactive isotopes, and it just gets worse 0:10:41.200 --> 0:10:45.480 from there. Next we have the Weeping Demon. In this segment, 0:10:45.600 --> 0:10:49.800 a man is climbing across a craggy, desolate landscape of 0:10:49.920 --> 0:10:53.800 rocks and gravel, and he encounters a monstrous man with 0:10:53.840 --> 0:10:56.600 a horn on his head. We learn that the man 0:10:56.720 --> 0:11:01.120 has been mutated by nuclear fallout, and against a backdrop 0:11:01.160 --> 0:11:05.000 of giant dandelions, he explains the cannibalistic hell of the 0:11:05.080 --> 0:11:08.760 radioactive desert, and then in the final segment, we get 0:11:08.920 --> 0:11:12.760 a rapid sort of down shift back into out of 0:11:12.800 --> 0:11:17.040 all the horrors, into a more contemplative mode. This is 0:11:17.080 --> 0:11:19.520 a segment called the Village of the Watermills, where our 0:11:19.600 --> 0:11:24.520 Kurosawa protagonist kind of ambles into an idyllic rural village 0:11:25.000 --> 0:11:27.840 along a river and he meets a wise old man 0:11:28.080 --> 0:11:29.760 and observes the local customs. 0:11:30.480 --> 0:11:33.559 I mean, no surprise, but Christawa really nailed it here 0:11:33.559 --> 0:11:36.520 with the order. It's just it's the perfect There's no 0:11:36.600 --> 0:11:38.720 other order for these sequences that would make sense. 0:11:39.160 --> 0:11:41.679 I think you may have more to say about this 0:11:41.720 --> 0:11:43.760 because you were watching the documentary, But I have read 0:11:43.800 --> 0:11:46.760 that there were originally intended to be more dreams that 0:11:46.840 --> 0:11:49.960 appeared in the film, but the segments got paired back 0:11:50.000 --> 0:11:53.120 as production went along, in some cases, I think at 0:11:53.120 --> 0:11:56.880 the writing stage. In some cases after some things were shot. 0:11:57.640 --> 0:12:01.160 But you know, whatever the original intentions, it does feel 0:12:01.200 --> 0:12:04.200 complete and cohesive to me with this set of aid 0:12:04.600 --> 0:12:07.120 even though I now know there were originally going to 0:12:07.120 --> 0:12:09.920 be more. This just feels right. Somehow it got to 0:12:09.960 --> 0:12:10.720 the right place. 0:12:11.320 --> 0:12:15.360 Yeah, And from what I understand of Krisawa's approach to filmmaking, 0:12:15.360 --> 0:12:17.439 this seems to line up with the way he approached 0:12:17.440 --> 0:12:19.840 things like you just sort of fine tune it as 0:12:19.880 --> 0:12:23.240 you go, and then the eventual final form presents itself 0:12:23.320 --> 0:12:26.000 to you, and in that case, these are the segments, 0:12:26.000 --> 0:12:26.880 and this is the ore. 0:12:27.040 --> 0:12:29.560 That's interesting, And this might not actually be a contradiction, 0:12:29.720 --> 0:12:35.040 but I've always read about Kurrasawa as a very meticulously 0:12:35.840 --> 0:12:38.400 planning in advance kind of filmmaker that like he can 0:12:38.960 --> 0:12:42.280 sort of see all the shots in his head ahead 0:12:42.280 --> 0:12:45.520 of time, and he sort of is editing in his 0:12:45.679 --> 0:12:48.000 mind ahead of time. Have you read similar things? 0:12:48.080 --> 0:12:53.360 Yeah, yeah, absolutely it was. I had not really consumed 0:12:53.440 --> 0:12:58.000 much about the man or his approach to filmmaking prior 0:12:58.040 --> 0:13:00.600 to checking out a couple of the documentaries on the 0:13:00.640 --> 0:13:03.400 Criterion collection disc for this film, which I'll reference here 0:13:03.440 --> 0:13:06.720 in a bit, But uh, there's a behind the scenes, 0:13:06.840 --> 0:13:08.640 some behind the scenes footage where you could see him 0:13:08.640 --> 0:13:11.960 in action shooting with the picture, and then there's a uh, 0:13:12.120 --> 0:13:17.319 there's a great twenty eleven documentary as well titled Kurrasawa's 0:13:17.320 --> 0:13:20.920 Way that you know, gets into this a bit as well. 0:13:21.080 --> 0:13:23.160 And Yeah, one of the things that I found very 0:13:23.160 --> 0:13:25.679 interesting is that like he's apparently, you know, very much 0:13:25.720 --> 0:13:30.440 kind of a loner, a man of few words. There, 0:13:30.520 --> 0:13:33.920 you know, he would what he would say about his 0:13:34.200 --> 0:13:37.480 process and A and and certainly in his directorial approach 0:13:38.040 --> 0:13:42.200 was often succinct and to the point. But uh, but 0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:44.920 he wasn't. He was admittedly like not somebody that would 0:13:44.960 --> 0:13:47.160 talk about theory a lot like it kind of like 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:49.559 he sees it in his head, he knows exactly how 0:13:49.600 --> 0:13:51.800 he wants it to work, and then you know, some 0:13:51.880 --> 0:13:57.040 amount of experimentation finding that that form. But he's he's 0:13:57.080 --> 0:13:59.640 not spouting a lot of theory. He's not then doing 0:13:59.679 --> 0:14:02.319 a lot of a film theory analysis of what worked 0:14:02.320 --> 0:14:04.959 and what didn't. And it's kind of left to all 0:14:05.000 --> 0:14:07.120 of the people that he influenced to come back and 0:14:07.160 --> 0:14:11.000 continually rewatch and describe exactly what he was doing. 0:14:11.320 --> 0:14:14.520 Yeah, I was thinking about how, you know, sometimes people 0:14:14.600 --> 0:14:18.600 break down filmmakers into oh, I don't know, I guess 0:14:18.600 --> 0:14:23.239 the rough division would be like technical filmmakers versus humanistic filmmakers, 0:14:23.400 --> 0:14:28.560 those who are more concerned with the technical expression of 0:14:28.600 --> 0:14:31.400 an artistic vision. You know, they're using their techniques and 0:14:31.440 --> 0:14:33.320 their skills to sort of put what they see in 0:14:33.360 --> 0:14:37.640 their head on the screen, versus the humanistic vision that 0:14:37.760 --> 0:14:41.240 is more concerned with themes and characters and film as 0:14:41.360 --> 0:14:44.720 narrative and film as kind of I don't know, an 0:14:44.760 --> 0:14:48.520 abstract product, something that you could explain and talk about 0:14:48.560 --> 0:14:50.800 and interpret the meaning of. And I think you could 0:14:50.880 --> 0:14:55.160 easily make the case that Corrusawa is very much both. 0:14:55.320 --> 0:14:57.320 Like you could make the argument that he is one 0:14:57.440 --> 0:14:59.480 more than the other, but in both directions. 0:15:00.120 --> 0:15:02.200 Yeah, yeah, like he has he certainly has all those 0:15:02.240 --> 0:15:06.480 technical abilities and those exceptional at them, but they're they're 0:15:06.560 --> 0:15:08.720 kind of they kind of almost seems like they're internalized 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:10.680 to a degree to where it's like all this is 0:15:10.720 --> 0:15:13.760 going on inside. And again he's not discussing the theory 0:15:13.920 --> 0:15:18.000 of how it's all coming together, but it certainly comes together. 0:15:18.200 --> 0:15:20.080 You know. I had typed up a list of themes 0:15:20.120 --> 0:15:23.880 I saw emerging in multiple segments of the film that 0:15:23.920 --> 0:15:25.880 I was maybe going to talk about here, but actually 0:15:25.960 --> 0:15:28.440 I think we should save that for later in the episode, 0:15:28.480 --> 0:15:30.600 after we talk about the plot in a little more detail, 0:15:30.680 --> 0:15:33.480 or the plots all right, So we would usually say 0:15:33.520 --> 0:15:35.400 an elevator pitch here, I think we've sort of already 0:15:35.400 --> 0:15:38.200 given it. It's Kira Kurosawa takes you on a tour 0:15:38.280 --> 0:15:39.080 of his dreams. 0:15:39.440 --> 0:15:42.160 Yeah, I would also submit, oops, I had another dream. 0:15:43.480 --> 0:15:47.240 They they do like there's a transition that often pops 0:15:47.240 --> 0:15:49.160 in to just say I had another dream. 0:15:50.640 --> 0:15:53.960 All right, if you would like to watch Dreams the 0:15:54.080 --> 0:15:58.360 cure Crosawa's Dreams. Fortunately, this one's widely available, various streaming 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:01.800 options out there. We can watch it digitally. I watched 0:16:01.800 --> 0:16:04.160 it on the Criterion Collection Blu Ray, which I written 0:16:04.240 --> 0:16:08.400 from Atlanta's own videodrome. Some excellent extras on this disc, 0:16:08.480 --> 0:16:10.640 as you'd expect, and I'll be referencing some of those. 0:16:11.560 --> 0:16:15.960 It's must purchase for anyone, or must rent for anyone 0:16:15.960 --> 0:16:18.800 who wants to go for a deeper dive into this movie. 0:16:19.400 --> 0:16:22.960 As of this recording, the film is not on Criterion Channel, 0:16:23.280 --> 0:16:25.880 but as with any streaming service, titles come and go there. 0:16:26.360 --> 0:16:28.560 I don't know if that's simply the case, or it 0:16:28.560 --> 0:16:31.640 has something to do with the Warner Brothers aspect of 0:16:31.680 --> 0:16:34.200 this production. I'm not sure, but yeah, you can definitely 0:16:34.240 --> 0:16:37.120 get it on Criterion Collection, Blu ray or DVD, but 0:16:37.160 --> 0:16:47.440 it's not on Criterion Channel right now, all right? 0:16:47.440 --> 0:16:48.720 Should we talk about the connections. 0:16:49.360 --> 0:16:53.640 Yeah, let's get into it starting, I guess with Kira Kurosawa, 0:16:53.960 --> 0:16:57.160 the director and writer who lived nineteen ten through nineteen 0:16:57.240 --> 0:16:59.680 ninety eight, and I really have to preface here and 0:16:59.680 --> 0:17:01.800 say that it feels really challenging to do any sort 0:17:01.840 --> 0:17:06.320 of brief summary of such a cinematic icon. But you know, 0:17:06.400 --> 0:17:11.639 here it goes. This brief summary year based on some 0:17:11.760 --> 0:17:15.080 information that I read at the excellent Akira Kurosawa dot 0:17:15.119 --> 0:17:17.840 info page, which is really good, as well as the 0:17:17.880 --> 0:17:22.639 extras on the disc that I just referenced. So, Krasawa 0:17:22.760 --> 0:17:26.640 was the youngest child and a moderately wealthy Japanese family 0:17:26.720 --> 0:17:30.440 descended from the former samurai class. His initial creative interest 0:17:30.560 --> 0:17:33.640 was painting, which is interesting given one of our segments 0:17:33.640 --> 0:17:36.960 in this film, but he followed his gifted older brother, 0:17:37.600 --> 0:17:41.479 Hego in his passion for cinema. Hago worked as an 0:17:41.520 --> 0:17:45.120 on site silent film narrator or benshi at this time 0:17:45.200 --> 0:17:48.639 and apparently enjoyed some amount of success there, and as 0:17:48.680 --> 0:17:50.680 Akira lived with him at the time, he was able 0:17:50.920 --> 0:17:53.600 to gain entry into an array of films, plays, and 0:17:53.640 --> 0:17:56.320 circus performances, which he would later cite as being very 0:17:56.359 --> 0:18:00.879 influential on his craft. Now, Hago's work dried up with 0:18:00.880 --> 0:18:03.720 the decline of silent films during the nineteen thirties, Akira 0:18:03.760 --> 0:18:06.080 moved back with his parents and two of his sisters, 0:18:06.520 --> 0:18:10.040 and Hago sadly died by suicide in nineteen thirty three. 0:18:10.600 --> 0:18:14.160 In nineteen thirty five, the Kurra Crosawa answered an advert 0:18:14.400 --> 0:18:19.119 in the newspaper from Photo Chemical Laboratories PCL. This is 0:18:19.200 --> 0:18:22.560 what would go on to become Toho Studios. They were 0:18:22.560 --> 0:18:26.600 seeking new assistant directors to engage in a mentor apprenticeship program, 0:18:26.640 --> 0:18:30.320 and so Akira submitted an essay. I've read that it 0:18:30.400 --> 0:18:34.720 was kind of a cheeky submission where he's like, the 0:18:34.760 --> 0:18:37.600 prompt was something like what would you do to fix 0:18:38.000 --> 0:18:40.240 a Japanese cinema And he's like, it can't be fixed 0:18:40.320 --> 0:18:43.119 or something. I don't know, but at any rate he 0:18:43.160 --> 0:18:46.800 won them over. He received a callback, and he went 0:18:46.840 --> 0:18:50.560 on to work with numerous established and up and coming directors. 0:18:51.640 --> 0:18:57.280 A special note his mentor, Kajiro Yamamoto. Kurosawa also took 0:18:57.320 --> 0:19:01.000 to screenwriting during this time, saw the value of that, 0:19:01.359 --> 0:19:04.119 and he served as a second unit or assistant director 0:19:04.160 --> 0:19:06.679 on numerous films and wrote screenplays for a handful of 0:19:06.680 --> 0:19:10.040 films before co writing and filming his first directorial effort 0:19:10.240 --> 0:19:15.159 with nineteen forty three's Sanshiro Sugata, a serious judo drama. 0:19:16.200 --> 0:19:18.040 I've not seen this one, but I've seen some clips 0:19:18.080 --> 0:19:20.600 from it, and they discussed it in the extras on 0:19:20.600 --> 0:19:23.520 the disc. It would spawn a nineteen forty five sequel, 0:19:23.520 --> 0:19:27.600 which he also co wrote and directed. In the twenty 0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:32.320 eleven documentary Kursawa's Way on the Criterion Collection disc, they 0:19:32.359 --> 0:19:36.159 point out this picture's sublime portrayal of action. So it's 0:19:36.200 --> 0:19:38.600 a judo film. It's a wrestling picture, but like a 0:19:38.640 --> 0:19:41.720 serious one, not like a Santo picture or some of 0:19:41.760 --> 0:19:47.439 the latter, you know, Japanese pro wrestling of pictures and 0:19:47.440 --> 0:19:51.760 so forth. But the action is really interesting because it 0:19:51.800 --> 0:19:54.720 has pointed out in this documentary, there's less of a 0:19:54.760 --> 0:19:57.720 focus on the actual grappling, or certainly the most impactful 0:19:57.760 --> 0:20:02.439 physical moments of the grappling war on audience responses, audio, 0:20:02.520 --> 0:20:06.520 emotional responses to the impact. So we won't actually see 0:20:06.560 --> 0:20:09.879 the impact. We'll see how people respond to it, and 0:20:09.920 --> 0:20:13.160 then we'll see sort of the results of that impact, 0:20:13.400 --> 0:20:19.000 which is very interesting. So Kisawa's wartime work included propaganda films, 0:20:19.040 --> 0:20:23.520 which apparently also included, to varying degrees, the Judo Pictures, 0:20:23.600 --> 0:20:29.359 especially the sequel. His work during this time sometimes was 0:20:29.400 --> 0:20:33.119 seen as too Western by sensors, and his nineteen forty 0:20:33.160 --> 0:20:35.560 five film The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail, 0:20:35.680 --> 0:20:38.200 a period piece, managed to run a foul of both 0:20:38.240 --> 0:20:43.639 imperial Japanese sensors and then subsequently American occupation sensors, for 0:20:43.760 --> 0:20:46.399 being in one case too democratic and then in the 0:20:46.400 --> 0:20:49.400 other case too feudal. I guess this is often the case. 0:20:49.400 --> 0:20:52.919 If you're managing to piss everyone off, maybe you're doing 0:20:53.000 --> 0:20:53.480 something right. 0:20:54.119 --> 0:20:54.320 Now. 0:20:54.400 --> 0:20:58.239 We can't walk through every kisaw Will picture, but we 0:20:58.320 --> 0:21:01.320 might reasonably summarize his post post war work along the 0:21:01.320 --> 0:21:04.040 stepping stones of No Regrets for Our Youth in forty six, 0:21:04.640 --> 0:21:08.680 the award winning One Wonderful Sunday from forty six as Well, 0:21:08.720 --> 0:21:11.840 I Believe, and then nineteen forty eight Drunken Angel, considered 0:21:11.840 --> 0:21:14.920 by many to be his first major work and his 0:21:14.920 --> 0:21:19.600 first picture to feature Toshiro Mafuni, who Kurosawa would famously 0:21:19.720 --> 0:21:23.920 utilize in many of his masterpieces to come, including nineteen 0:21:23.960 --> 0:21:28.280 fifties Raschaman, which earned him international acclaim, including recognition at 0:21:28.280 --> 0:21:32.040 the Academy Awards in nineteen fifty two, and from there, 0:21:32.119 --> 0:21:33.800 Kirasawa went on to write and direct some of the 0:21:33.840 --> 0:21:36.800 best regarded films in cinema history, including but not limited to, 0:21:37.200 --> 0:21:39.840 fifty four to seven Samurai, fifty seven's Throwne of Blood, 0:21:40.200 --> 0:21:44.359 fifty eight's The Hidden Fortress, sixty one's Yojimbo, sixty threes, 0:21:44.480 --> 0:21:47.960 High and Low, nineteen eighties Kejimusha, The Shadow Warrior, and 0:21:48.080 --> 0:21:52.320 nineteen eighty five's Ron. These decades entailed various ups and 0:21:52.400 --> 0:21:57.640 down industry changes, some unsuccessful Hollywood projects, most notably Runaway Train, 0:21:57.720 --> 0:22:00.920 which would ultimately be directed by another director nineteen eighty five, 0:22:01.680 --> 0:22:04.920 various setbacks and excursion of the Soviet Union to shoot 0:22:05.000 --> 0:22:09.719 nineteen seventy five's durso Uzala, and a comeback partially produced 0:22:09.720 --> 0:22:15.240 by influential American directors who he had heavily influenced himself. 0:22:16.359 --> 0:22:19.919 And this was increasingly important as Japanese studios were in 0:22:19.960 --> 0:22:23.639 this time less likely to back him, and so he 0:22:23.720 --> 0:22:28.240 was increasingly turning to outside and foreign financers. And certainly 0:22:28.240 --> 0:22:29.360 that's the case with Dreams. 0:22:29.760 --> 0:22:32.400 Was it the case with his later films that they 0:22:32.400 --> 0:22:35.959 were regarded both in Japan and internationally as masterpieces, But 0:22:36.000 --> 0:22:37.600 they also didn't make a lot of money. 0:22:38.320 --> 0:22:41.439 Yeah, yeah, I've read. I was looking at like some 0:22:41.600 --> 0:22:45.320 contemporary Ebert reviews talking about like what happens when you 0:22:45.359 --> 0:22:47.919 have like a master who you know, keeps doing their 0:22:47.960 --> 0:22:51.840