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- Feb 7, 2009
Akira Kurosawa's Dreams
As a big Kurosawa fan this is one I've been trying to track down for a long time. I had it in my Netflix queue for easily a few years, with no physical copy ever being listed as available; they must have added it to their Instant list of movies somewhat recently, and when I discovered that I set down pretty much everything else I was doing.
For most who are likely unfamiliar, Kurosawa is considered to be one of the best directors in pretty much ever. His movies are all Japanese, with English subtitles, but if you don't mind reading you can pretty much pick blindly from his catalog and be guaranteed something that's at least 'really good.' That being said, I don't know what this particular movie did in terms of popularity around his neck of the woods, as it's a very artistic film, but I'd believe if someone told me it was green lighted based on his name alone.
As the title says, it is a collection of short stories that capture various potent dreams the director has had over his life. It's hard to really capture in words what you'd have to see and digest to fully appreciate. I can say though that the feeling you get when you're dreaming, how it's kinda real, kinda surreal, how later when you make sense and analyze it it's really awkward yet somehow makes perfect sense, while at the same time making no sense at all...he captures that perfectly, with each story. The subtleties really are amazing.
If you don't mind a foreign movie, and can enjoy an artsy, thinking man's flick, you may enjoy it. It's super weird at times, but that's how dreams are.
One note of warning, though. Though this movie was made two decades ago, one of the dreams paints a very eerie parallel to the recent crisis in Japan.
Lupin the 3rd: The Castle of Cagliostro
Here's another I had in my queue of movies for the longest goddamn time but they never had any copies available. And another one that Netflix added to their Instant section somewhere along the way which I only discovered recently.
To my understanding this is Hayao Miyazaki's first movie, before the formation of Studio Ghibli. I sought it out based on that fact, despite not really understanding the appeal of Lupin from the couple of times I'd caught it late at night on Cartoon Network.
Overall it was an enjoyable movie, if you go in understanding that it's something like thirty years old and the bar wasn't quite set so high back then. Heck, it's even got a charm to it, if you don't mind an anime that is simplistic and extremely campy. After watching it I think I'd be willing to give the other Lupin stuff a second shot, though I still don't feel any particular pull to it.
As a big Kurosawa fan this is one I've been trying to track down for a long time. I had it in my Netflix queue for easily a few years, with no physical copy ever being listed as available; they must have added it to their Instant list of movies somewhat recently, and when I discovered that I set down pretty much everything else I was doing.
For most who are likely unfamiliar, Kurosawa is considered to be one of the best directors in pretty much ever. His movies are all Japanese, with English subtitles, but if you don't mind reading you can pretty much pick blindly from his catalog and be guaranteed something that's at least 'really good.' That being said, I don't know what this particular movie did in terms of popularity around his neck of the woods, as it's a very artistic film, but I'd believe if someone told me it was green lighted based on his name alone.
As the title says, it is a collection of short stories that capture various potent dreams the director has had over his life. It's hard to really capture in words what you'd have to see and digest to fully appreciate. I can say though that the feeling you get when you're dreaming, how it's kinda real, kinda surreal, how later when you make sense and analyze it it's really awkward yet somehow makes perfect sense, while at the same time making no sense at all...he captures that perfectly, with each story. The subtleties really are amazing.
If you don't mind a foreign movie, and can enjoy an artsy, thinking man's flick, you may enjoy it. It's super weird at times, but that's how dreams are.
One note of warning, though. Though this movie was made two decades ago, one of the dreams paints a very eerie parallel to the recent crisis in Japan.
Lupin the 3rd: The Castle of Cagliostro
Here's another I had in my queue of movies for the longest goddamn time but they never had any copies available. And another one that Netflix added to their Instant section somewhere along the way which I only discovered recently.
To my understanding this is Hayao Miyazaki's first movie, before the formation of Studio Ghibli. I sought it out based on that fact, despite not really understanding the appeal of Lupin from the couple of times I'd caught it late at night on Cartoon Network.
Overall it was an enjoyable movie, if you go in understanding that it's something like thirty years old and the bar wasn't quite set so high back then. Heck, it's even got a charm to it, if you don't mind an anime that is simplistic and extremely campy. After watching it I think I'd be willing to give the other Lupin stuff a second shot, though I still don't feel any particular pull to it.
