"Dream" is a work by Akira Kurosawa after five years of filming "Ran". The film consists of eight short stories written by Akira Kurosawa himself. It is a film with a completely different style from Akira Kurosawa's previous works. Since 1943, Kurosawa Akira's debut work "Zushi Sanshiro" came out, he has made 30 films in 50 years, "Dream" is his 28th work. The eight fantasy stories of the film are narrated with the first person pronoun "I" as the main character, and each story has a distinct theme. Kurosawa has his own theory. He said the subject matter. If you say everything you want to say without whitewashing, or set the subject first and then shoot, you won’t be able to shoot interesting works and the audience will leave you alone. Go, the theme should be allowed to reveal itself naturally in order to give the audience fun.
The concept of the script for "Dream" came about two years before the filming started. Akira Kurosawa said that he was originally the director of the feature film. As he felt that some things could only be expressed through short stories, he quickly wrote this script composed of fragments. He said that he didn't think about the subject at the time, but just took a natural picture of his views on the world today. After watching the film, we can come to the conclusion that "Dream" is exactly what Kurosawa, a famous director who is 80 years old, summed up his outlook on life.
The "I" in the two dreams of "Sun Rain" and "Taoyuan" is the same boy. The two hazy dreams show the innocence, curiosity and kindness of the childlike innocence. The "I" in "Sun Rain" secretly went to see "The Fox's Marriage" with his mother on his back, and later had to bring a knife to the fox to apologize. The mother said that the fox’s home was under the rainbow. “I” ran desperately to the lush field and saw the colorful Changhong that straddles the two mountains from a distance. The lens took people into a wide oil painting. Going out of the nature, this means the change of the spiritual world of "I", which indicates that the childish heart will mature and move towards a better world. The "I" in "Taoyuan" enjoyed the reward of seeing the peach blossoms in full bloom after receiving it for generations. The flower fairies rebuked someone for breaking the peach tree and it would never bloom again. "I" cried for others picking the peach blossoms. The flower fairies danced to the joyful music to make the peach blossoms bloom in the garden. I’m standing among the peach blossoms and laughing. The director once again expressed the beauty of nature and her love of nurturing humans.
There are almost no films describing war themes in Kurosawa's works. Only in the film "Escape at Dawn" in which he participated in the screenwriting, the violence within the army is shown. It is described in the film that some officers in the war became sadists, and the abused soldiers did not know how to hate their superiors when they died. In the segment of "Tunnel," Akira Kurosawa profoundly expresses the incurable trauma and torture left by war. The squadron leader "I" who survived as a prisoner in the film is often in the pain of being condemned. A soldier's ghost came to the tunnel and said to "I": "I think I am not dead, I I remember going home and ate the bread my mother made for me. "I" had to tell the soldier that he died after being shot, and died on his own arm. The ghost said sadly: "My parents are still waiting for me to go back!" "I" had to confess to the ghosts of the soldiers, "I'm sorry, I have no face to see you, I am responsible for your death... I am a coward. , I put all the blame for causing your death to the unjust war. But the life of being a prisoner is better than death... Please go back and rest in peace..." Kurosawa used a tunnel as a metaphor for "I" The gloom of the mood. A lower-level officer who survived as a prisoner, he entered and exited the tunnel timidly, and a vicious dog threatened him from time to time. He could only endure the torture of his conscience tremblingly. Although the short film shows the suffering of a junior officer, it also shows the innocent ghosts who died in the war and the grief of their relatives.
In all the films, the "Blizzard" is a part of deeper meaning. The four climbing partners are in danger in the snowy creek dancing in the snowstorm, and they are almost on the verge of death. Suddenly a snow girl appears and she takes off her shining shawl. Covering the climber, he said in his mouth: "The snow is warm...the ice is hot..." At this moment, "I" (one of the climbers) seemed to hear a kind of singing that made him fall asleep, although he was afraid of himself I would freeze to death when I fell asleep, but I couldn't stand up... After a period of deep sleep, the wind and snow stopped and the sun shone through the clouds. He called his three partners to wake up, and they rushed to the top of the mountain vigorously. This kind of power should be said to be derived from love. It is the fire of love in the heart that melts the ice and snow, turns danger into peace, and allows "I" to continue on the path of life. In photography, whether it is a close-up, a middle-range or a long-range view, Kurosawa always meticulously allows the brightly colored parts to occupy the entire picture, such as the red and swollen face of the climber, the frost on the beard and the atmosphere covered by dark clouds, etc. Bring it into the suffocating environment, making it both literary and film-like, as Kurosawa said, "If you leave the film, you don't need to make a movie."
Kurosawa loved painting since he was a child. When he was in middle school, he often went to the suburbs to paint landscapes. He also had the ideal of becoming a painter in the future. His works were selected in the all-day newcomer exhibition. He likes Van Gogh in 19th century Western Europe. In order to buy oil paints and canvases for Utrelliro's paintings, he drew illustrations for magazines and drew comics for textbooks. Although he failed to become a professional painter later, the basis of painting provided him with good conditions for making films in the future. Before each film was made, Kurosawa drew design sketches of various pictures to visualize his ideas.
In the "crow" section of the film, Akira Kurosawa uses a dreamlike technique to show that "I" unknowingly enters the painting scene when visiting the gallery. This technique fascinates people and unfolds an interesting encounter between "I" and Van Gogh. "I" followed Van Gogh who was sketching in the painting, which made Van Gogh seem a little impatient. He ignored "I" without thinking, and while painting, he said: "My time is running out. I must work hard like a locomotive. ." Van Gogh was wrapped in a bandage, saying that it was because his ears were always poorly drawn in self-portraits, so he cut off and threw it away in a huff. It can be considered that the expressionism and impressionist techniques that Kurosawa has absorbed in director art, as well as his strong creative enthusiasm and creative spirit of excellence, are deeply influenced by the Western art trends of the 19th century. In his works, the beauty and reality of the setting are emphasized, especially in "Shadow Warrior" and "Chaos" after the 1980s. It can be seen that the arrangement and composition of the pictures are like a group of pictures.
"Village with Waterwheel" clearly expresses the theme of "how beautiful nature is." The two episodes "Red Fuji" and "Ghost Cry" can be said to pave the way for this theme, thus strengthening the theme of loving nature. Therefore, these two short stories can be said to be the author’s worries about the disappearance of beautiful nature. The explosion of Mount Fuji in the dream expresses a sense of crisis about the consequences of nuclear tests. The explosion of nuclear power plants in the film has caused tens of thousands of people People scrambled to flee. One of the men who worked in the power station said that it would be useless to flee. Six atomic furnaces would explode one after another. He told people that as long as one in ten million of radiation enters the human body, human bone marrow and gonads will cause cancer, and even genetic changes will occur... What a terrible reality! Mount Fuji, which symbolizes the spirit of Japan’s Yamato nationality, has turned into a blood-red color on the screen, with fearless and hopeless faces. The mothers covered their noses for their children in an attempt to prevent them from inhaling some radioactive gas, which would turn the audience away from it. In my dream, I return to the memories of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. "Ghost Cry" and "Red Fuji" have a certain continuity. In the ruins where there is no vegetation or forest, "I" met a ghost with horns on his head. He told "I" that this was a garden in the past, but now the land has become a dust, and now the only thing that looks like a dandelion grows. Plants are not only inedible but also poisonous. All kinds of strange ghosts here eat each other to sustain themselves. Kurosawa once said the following in an interview with reporters: "...Nowadays, the beautiful nature is disappearing. When the beautiful nature disappears, of course the beautiful hearts of human beings will also disappear. I just want to describe myself naturally. Nostalgia for nature and a beautiful soul."
The "Village with Waterwheel" shows the beauty of nature and the beautiful heart of mankind in a lively pastoral style.
It took Kurosawa a lot of effort to find the location—a small river at the foot of the Northern Alps, where the stream is gurgling, and the flowers on both sides are lush. Under the requirements of Akira Kurosawa's "perfectionism", the six waterwheels produced in this film cost 60 million yen. The realistic props and scenery make the climax of the whole play a perfect result. There is no hustle and bustle of a modern city. People don’t use electrical appliances and keep the habit of lighting with candles and oil lamps. The old man sits in front of the cabin and weaves handicrafts in his hands. Brought into the beautiful nature. Kurosawa expressed his views on today’s society through the conversation between "I" and the old man, "We are here in the past, retaining the natural way of life, and now people almost forget that they are also part of nature. Some scholars I think I’m smart, and I’ve desperately researched and invented some things that cause human misfortune. For people, the most important thing is fresh air and clean water. For those things, they pollute the air and water, and they also pollute kindness. People here are still pure and kind. They put a slate on the bridge, and every time people walk by, they put a flower on it to express their nostalgia for a strange passerby who died here. "
The funeral was very spectacular. The 80-member folk wind band played while dancing. The 103-year-old man in the group held bells and flowers, and it was as lively as a temple fair. The old man said to "I": "People live well, work well, and die after a hard life is worth celebrating." This is exactly Kurosawa's own philosophy of life.
Kurosawa Akira’s previous works have almost highlighted the spirit of the samurai, such as "Red Beard", "Bodyguard", "Tsubaki Saniro", "Shadow Samurai", "Ran", etc., and even in the modern theme "Drunk" The spirit of the samurai is also run through in films such as "Angel". A free and independent person is Akira Kurosawa's ideal person. The core of his filming is to free people from the shackles of the country and politics, and simply express humanity. But in the film "Dream", he not only expressed his views on childlike innocence, morality, love, life and death, but also expressed clear opinions on war, nuclear tests, pollution, etc., because he could not get enough He was very dissatisfied with the situation of Japanese films for the filming funds. He said that Japan is known as an economic power, but he has to go to foreign countries to find investment in filming. He said that Japan is a cultural country, but there is not even a politician who understands culture. Regarding the question of "dreams", he said this: "Dreams are very interesting things. People always think about why they dream of these things? Especially for film directors, all works are dreams. I still have a lot of things to do. To realize the dream, I want to rebuild Japan, and at least reform Japanese politics.” From these words, we can be sure that this "Dream" is indeed Kurosawa Akira's true view of the world today, not a dream.
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