Sightlines · reception
How Dreams was received
1990 · Akira Kurosawa · Dreams on Sightlines
The arc
At its 1990 Cannes premiere critics found it gorgeous but preachy — minor late Kurosawa. It's since been fully reappraised (Criterion edition, constant Letterboxd love) as one of his most personal and visually staggering works.
What’s debated
The perennial fight: profound deathbed poetry or a beautiful but didactic lecture — plus everyone ranking the eight segments and defending their favorite.
Its footprint
Two images live rent-free in film culture: the fox wedding procession in the rain, and Kurosawa's surrogate literally walking into Van Gogh's paintings — both endlessly gif'd, screencapped, and imitated.
Where it stands
A canon climber — once a footnote to the 'real' masterpieces, now a Letterboxd darling and a rite of passage for anyone working through late Kurosawa.
Did you know? When Japanese studios wouldn't fund it, Steven Spielberg persuaded Warner Bros. to back the film — Martin Scorsese plays Vincent van Gogh, and George Lucas's ILM did the effects for the Van Gogh segment.