This film consists of eight dreams:
The first dream-sunshine and rain:
A boy stood at the door of something raining and looked at the forest outside with curious eyes. At this time, his mother told him: "Don't look at things you shouldn't"; At this time, the children took the opportunity to run into the forest and saw the wedding of the fox bride. After being discovered by the fox, the child rushed home, waited for his mother at the door and told the child: "The fox came and told everything. If he stays at home, there will be a bloody disaster, so he can't stay at home. " The fox gave him a knife, and all kinds of signs showed that he "must apologize";
So he looked everywhere for the fox's home. The fox's home is under the rainbow. Then we really came to the rainbow: flowers were everywhere, green hills were looming in the fog, and the fox forgave him, so the child saw the sunshine in the rain.
The second dream-Tian Tao:
In a Japanese style room, a group of children are playing. It was obvious that there were only these people in the room, but Ntaro said blankly, "Sister, there is another person." The beautifully dressed sisters looked around in dismay: no, just these people. "Sister, there is really another person!" In this way, the puppet festival on March 3 was disturbed by the ghost Entaro. However, there is really another person. that person
Dressed as beautifully as my sisters.
It's peach blossom girl. Why did she come uninvited?
Because today is the "Peach Tree Festival", every family has to cut peach trees for the festival. Just like westerners cut pine trees at Christmas. When the children were happy, the peach trees were planted. Unconsciously, we came to the foot of the mountain and saw the wonderful performance of the energy drama. Their background is not the stage, but the peach blossoms flying all over the sky and the dense peach blossom forest! The music at this time is a symphony played by a big band. A little girl in white is hiding among the flowers. When Ntaro ran to find her, she had become a chopped stump. I can still hear the sound of the little girl's foot bell fading away. ...
The third dream-snowstorm:
Thick snowstorm, accompanied by hurricane, can't see anything, only countless snow. At this time, four people appeared. They trudged through the snow as if they could not reach their destination. How long can they last if the snowstorm keeps coming like this? ..... I deeply remember this line, "This snowstorm will never stop! Waiting for us is death! " ..... Snow God appeared ... They raised their fragile eyelids and looked at the goddess. .....
The fourth dream-tunnel:
The story begins in a gloomy environment, with ghosts on soldiers' faces, barking dogs, unfathomable tunnels and a group of Japanese soldiers kicking their hearts and lungs. ...
The fifth dream-crow:
The fields in Van Gogh's paintings-Al's drawbridge, the wheat field, and the washerwoman next to him ... are exactly the same in tone and situation!
The sixth dream-Mount Fuji;
About the explosion of nuclear power plants and Xanadu .....
The seventh dream-the ghost cried:
Flowers-some stems grow strange buds from flowers, similar to dandelions; Some flowers and leaves are incomplete (roses) ... all these flowers grow in the desert, where there used to be hydrogen bombs and missiles everywhere. "These are the consequences of human stupidity!"
The eighth dream-Shuiche Village:
An old man who claimed to be 103 years old and wore a straw hat was making a waterwheel. Later, he attended a funeral. The dead old woman was his first lover. "But she made me fall in love with someone else and marry someone else!" "He said with a smile. Finally, he came to give him a funeral ... At the entrance of Shuiche Village, there was a lonely stone, which was the grave of a drifter. Whenever people pass by, they should put a bunch of flowers on the stone to comfort the soul of the wanderer.
Human beings in the 20th century hold great wealth. What will they encounter at the threshold of the new century? The natural ecology is unbalanced, various disasters occur frequently, and the survival crisis is becoming more and more serious. What will be the fate of mankind? What will be the fate of the earth? In his later years, Akira Kurosawa thought about the major problems faced by modern people with the unique wisdom of his oriental artists, and expressed his theme motivation with rich film means-the only way out for mankind should be to yield to nature. The story told by Kurosawa in the form of a dream embodies the unique ideology of primitive people, that is, it solves a "real" contradiction in imagination. Therefore, this is a schema of mythical structure, which incorporates the basic opposition system of "nature and culture". Around this basic core, from the author's point of view, it seems to be a scene evolved from the memory of personal growth experience; From the collective point of view, it is a metaphor for the whole human cultural process. It's just that Kurosawa's thinking is more inclined to the extremes of nature while following the matrix of ancient myths. When the mysterious colors of nature gradually fade away, beautiful things disappear with them. Human disasters mainly come from scientific and technological civilization itself, so the signs of human destruction are a kind of "self-punishment" to a greater extent. In another binary opposition of "life and death", Kurosawa looked at life from the extreme of death. Because the disaster is the result of human civilization depriving nature, it makes human feel deeply guilty and completely desperate. Then, death is a kind of liberation, and life is a kind of absurdity, because human beings have no "home" to return to. Kurosawa chose "eight dreams" from his own memories and fantasies. These eight dreams are interlocking, independent and an organic whole. * * * around a central intention, from the perspective of "I"-the dreamer, show the various stages of human collective unconscious psychology. It breaks the boundaries between reality and fantasy, life and death, communicates the relationship between "man-nature-ghosts and gods", and ends with a prediction of the future world, thus achieving the purpose of warning and admonishing, thus saving mankind from complete destruction.
The film begins with the first dream-Sunshine and Rain. This is an ancient Japanese legend. Childhood "I" (or childhood human) is at a loss in front of nature, but I can't restrain my strong curiosity and want to explore the mysteries of nature. Nature is changing with its own laws, and "sunshine and rain" is an illusion of alternating yin and yang. The ancients had a sense of awe at this strange phenomenon, thinking that it was a natural spirit at work, thus perfunctory the story of "foxes marrying women" and handed it down as a visual taboo. My mother is the executor of this commandment. Between "me" and nature, she warned me not to peek at the team of foxes marrying women. However, I still violated the ban. Mom said that if you violate the ban, you will be punished-"children who see things they shouldn't see can't go home." She also sent a message for the foxes: they were very angry and asked me to commit suicide by caesarean section and apologize to them. My mother suggested that I go to the fox's house and ask for forgiveness. The fox's home is under the rainbow, and I accepted it gladly. In this fairy tale, it is obvious that the natural side is dominant. I am a very small person, and my mother is more on the side of nature to give orders to me. I am a child who violates taboos, but I am attracted by the beauty of nature. I am indifferent to the world of sunshine, rain, forests, rainbows and flowers. Or continue to explore? My mood at this time is complicated.
If the first dream is that "I" violates the "visual taboo" stipulated by the elders, then the second dream-"Peach Tree Field" destroys the traditional customs and festivals. As all the peach trees have been cut down, the "Peach Festival" on March 3rd can't be held. "I" was taken to the puppet, the incarnation of the peach tree elf. They questioned me and told me that all the peach trees were crying. Out of childlike innocence, I once cried for the peach tree that was cut down. When I was a kind-hearted child, the daughters of peach trees danced for me, and I was intoxicated by the beautiful and wonderful scene. But this is just an illusion. In reality, all I can see is the peach tree stump. In this second fairy tale, there is already a feeling of sadness, and my family and I have done destructive acts against nature.
In the third dream, nature turned into a cold face. Our tired climbers are struggling in snowstorms and dense fog, at the same time, sandman and death are also threatening us. My dream tells me that the messenger in my dream is a beautiful fairy. She said, "Snow is warm and ice is hot", and she changed from a beautiful woman to a devil. This is to convey to us the truth that "extremes meet". When I woke up, the snowstorm weakened and retreated, and my friends and I returned to the camp from the lost snow valley. This third dream has lost beautiful things and sights, which shows that nature is issuing a severe warning to mankind. If you go your own way, there will be even greater disasters. No sooner had the sandman left than death came.
The fourth dream happened in the "tunnel". The war took my friend's life, and I was the only survivor. On my way home, I walked into the tunnel. A dead soldier came in the tunnel. He thought he wasn't dead. He said that he had gone home. I can only tell him the truth that he is really dead, but as he said he knew, he kept nagging about going home to see his parents. I repeatedly proved that he was a dead man, and he reluctantly left. Then, all the third teams who died in the battlefield also marched from the tunnel and reported to me. I advised them to go back to rest, just as I advised the first soldier to come out. In this fourth dream, the dead have the advantage, and the tunnel is the "world of yin and yang" leading to another world, where the living and the dead meet. It's terrible for the living, but the dead have been released. They don't think death is painful. They also talked about the feeling of going home to reunite with their loved ones. As a living person, I feel guilty. Although he survived by luck, he became a "captive", and the wounds left by the war are still tormenting the living people. If living is not as happy as dying, then why live? When I begged them to say "What's the point of wandering in this world", I was actually expressing my feelings. Otherwise, how could I walk into the "tunnel" on my way home and meet my dead comrades in the "tunnel"?
The fifth dream is about "art and artists". "I" walked into the paintings of the Dutch painter Bern Gao to find the painter himself. Gao Gang, a burned man, came out of a mental hospital and hurried to sketch in other places. So, why are you in such a hurry to burn high paint? It turns out that painting art comes from the immediate nature, and the artist's mission is to discover the beauty of nature. However, the natural environment is gradually disappearing from our sight. Therefore, Gao Fei said, "Start painting, paint like a locomotive …" The artist is singing the last elegy for nature, and those crows are the symbol of the artist, because crows are not "hunters" but "scavengers".
"Red Fuji" (the sixth dream) is a symbol of the destruction of the world and the coming of the end of mankind. Scientists invented the atomic power station, but it led to a devastating disaster, even the inventor himself was inevitable. On his deathbed, he realized that "it is useless to ask death for his business card." People talk about punishing those who caused the disaster at the critical moment, but it is too late.
The seventh dream: When the earth is near the end and only "I" is left, I can only talk to ghosts. However, the ghost suffered in hell, and he accused me of crimes committed by human beings. Ignorant human beings have turned the earth into a big garbage dump, which is full of all kinds of toxic substances, and these substances naturally cease to exist, and "ghosts" will be miserable (Kurosawa uses ghosts as a metaphor). People are as miserable as ghosts, but they can't die if they want to, and they can only live and suffer. I am alone, I can't be a man, I can't be a ghost, I have nowhere to live.
Just like Another Village with a Bright Future, Shuiche Village (the eighth dream) is my ideal destination. There are "green grass, birds singing and flowers fragrant, rivers gurgling". This is a vibrant village. Simple villagers keep their ancient way of life. They cook with firewood and light with wax. A centenarian talked to me about "the way of life". He said that human beings are also a part of nature. Once nature disappears, so will mankind. One should live innocently, work honestly and get a good reputation after death. His funeral will be as festive as a wedding.
Kurosawa completed his "Eight Dreams", and each "Dream" was like a lyric poem, and at the same time it turned into a symphony. In the binary opposition of "nature-civilization" structure, Kurosawa did not emphasize the dramatic conflict of opposites, but adopted a calm attitude and expressed his subconscious subjective wishes and emotions very objectively. He sometimes stood on the side of nature to induce human beings, and sometimes stood on the side of ghosts and gods to admonish human beings. After weaving all kinds of causality, he finally overwhelmed the bad tendency of civilization with the absolute advantage of nature and forced mankind to submit to nature. The only way out for human existence-only by living in harmony with nature can we live and work in peace and contentment. Kurosawa's artistic mission is to preserve nature, art and beauty, thus preserving human beings themselves.
In this film, Kurosawa uses his consistent audio-visual style and philosophical thinking, and through eight profound dreams, including inculcating the elderly and sharply criticizing the young, shows his reflection on modern society and condemnation of all kinds of human follies. These eight dreams are independent and organically related, which constitutes Kurosawa's overall thinking about the world in his later period.