Main Cast: Akira Terao, Martin Scorsese, Mitsunori Isaki, Chishu Ryu, Mieko Harada
Release Year: 1990
Country: US/JP
Run Time: 120 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
Following up on his critically acclaimed, blood-splattered epic Ran, master director Akira Kurosawa looks inward with this collection of eight brightly colored dreams. The first section centers on a young boy (Mitsunori Izaki), who witnesses a forest wedding procession of fox spirits in spite of his mother's (Mitsuko Baisho) warning. The second section concerns the same lad who converses with peach-tree spirits after the trees have been cruelly cut down. This is followed by a party of mountain climbers struggling to make it back to base camp in the midst of a terrible blizzard. The fourth dream deals with a man (Akira Terao) -- a Kurosawa stand-in complete with the director's trademark floppy white hat -- who encounters ghosts of Japan's militaristic past in a forlorn tunnel. In the following dream, the same man ventures into a Van Gogh painting called The Crows and meets the artist himself (Martin Scorsese). The sixth and seventh dreams venture into nightmare territory -- one deals with a nuclear meltdown that threatens Japan while the other concerns post-nuclear mutants. In the final dream, Kurosawa meets a 103-year-old man (played by Ozu regular Chishu Ryu) in a utopian rural village. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
Mitsunori Isaki - "I" as a Boy [The Peach Orchard]
Chishu Ryu - 103-year-old Man [Village Of The Watermills]
Mieko Harada - The Snow Fairy [The Blizzard]
Mitsuko Baisho - Mother of "I" [Sunshine Through The Rain]; Yoshitaka Zushi - Pvt. Noguchi [The Tunnel]; Chosuke Ikariya - The Demon [The Weeping Demon]; Hisashi Igawa - Power Station Worker [Mt. Fuji In Red]; Toshihiko Nakano - "I" as a Young Child [Sunshine Through The Rain]; Mie Suzuki - "I's" Sister [The Peach Orchard]; Takashi Odajima - [Village Of The Watermills]; Sachio Sakai - [Village Of The Watermills]; Yuji Sawayama - [Village Of The Watermills]; Naoto Shigemizu - [Village Of The Watermills]; Tetsu Watanabe - [Village Of The Watermills]; Haruko Togo - [Village Of The Watermills]; Toshie Negishi - Child-carrying Mother [Mt. Fuji In Red]; Akisato Yamada - [Village Of The Watermills]; Osamu Yayama - [Village Of The Watermills]; Masayuki Yui - Member of climbing team [The Blizzard]; Toshiya Ito - [Village Of The Watermills]; Fujio Tokita - [Village Of The Watermills]; Reiko Nanao - [Village Of The Watermills]; Shoichiro Sakata - [Village Of The Watermills]; Shizuka Isami - [Village Of The Watermills]
Credit
Yoshiro Muraki - Art Director, Akira Sakuragi - Art Director, Seikichi Iizumi - Associate Producer, Michiyo Hata - Choreography, Mike Y. Inoue - Co-producer, Hisao Kurosawa - Co-producer, Emi Wada - Costume Designer, Akira Kurosawa - Director, Tome Minami - Editor, Shinichiro Ikebe - Composer (Music Score), Tameyuki Aimi - Makeup, Norio Sano - Makeup, Shoshichiro Ueda - Makeup, Shinobu Muraki - Production Designer, Takao Saito - Cinematographer, Masaharu Ueda - Cinematographer, Koichi Hamamura - Set Designer, Industrial Light & Magic - Special Effects, Akira Kurosawa - Screenwriter
