Review – Akira Kurosawa's Dreams

Normally I’m not a big fan of the bylined title, but in this case it’s more than justified. A collection of supernatural-ish short subjects from a Japanese director is almost automatically going to invite comparison to Kwaidan, but this one’s pure Kurosawa. The second half of the eight tales tend to be a bit on the emotional side, particularly the thickly sentimental finale. For my tastes the first few are more entertaining, especially the fox wedding. However, all the way through the movie retains the director’s wonderful sense of understatement and ambiguity. Worth seeing