Dreams by Akra Kurosawa

I: Sunshine Through the Rain

     For some odd reason, the curiosity of the little boy over takes his mother's warning. Kurosawa's dream seems to be a warning to himself that he is about to have a major change happen in his life. The fox people are holding a wedding precession in the middle of the forest, just after the rainstorm, and the little boy is caught watching them. Something that is forbidden. In the tradition of the fox people, he is supposed to kill himself, and is not allowed back inside his home. The symbolism of the huge doors to enter the home area show how the Japanese people are forced to live in isolation. When the boy is walking through the field of flowers, the vivid colouration shows the beauty of life, and because of the task he has of killing himself or finding the fox people, it is important to understand that he robbed his own life of beauty. The use of masks in this short, as in the same as in Kurosawa's 'Throne of Blood' helps the fox people to keep the same expression, a highly steady, or serious, one. The child's walk through the flowers works in the last scene, mixed with the mountains, shows how death is looming over his head.

     This dream has a connection with the story of Adam and Eve in the Christian bible, Beauty and the Beast, an American children's movie, and the story of Peter Pan. The way it connects to Adam and Eve is because of the curiosity the little boy has, is just like Eve's curiosity in what the apple tastes like. After she tastes the apple/after he sees the fox people, she must go through the pain of child birth/he must go through the act of killing himself. It is similar to the Beauty and the Beast, in the sense of the little boy being the place of Belle, venturing into an area that shouldn't be travelled in, and the discovery of something that isn't supposed to be there. Though, there are not really many consequences in 'the Beauty and the Beast', but the exposure of an odd beauty that is not normally seen. In the case of the little boy, the fox people. The way it is similar to Peter Pan is how, because he is so young, he shouldn't grow up, and Peter Pan, because he is older, has to grow up, and because of his actions, the little boy is forced to grow up, by performing the act of killing himself. Another story that 'Sunshine Through the Rain' is similar to, is the story of Pandora, an her box of secrets in the world. When Pandora opens her box, she realizes so many different things, horrible things, happy things, but she managed to close the box in time to save one last thing for safe keeping; hope. The little boy has unleashed something he shouldn't have; the anger of the fox people unto himself.
Next short, II: The Peach Orchids, will be tomorrow. I think. And hope.


     So, until next time--