Inspired by actual recurring dreams that Kurosawa had,[5] it stars Akira Terao, Martin Scorsese, Chishū Ryū, Mieko Harada and Mitsuko Baisho.

An international co-production of Japan and the United States, Dreams was made five years after Ran, with assistance from George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, and funded by Warner Bros.

Dreams addresses themes such as childhood, spirituality, art, death, and mistakes and transgressions made by humans against nature.

The film does not have a single narrative, but is episodic in nature, following the adventures of a "surrogate Kurosawa" through eight different segments, or "dreams", each one titled.

A young boy's mother tells him to stay at home during a day when the sun is shining through the rain, warning him that kitsune (foxes) have their weddings during such weather, and do not like to be seen.

His mother meets him at the front door, barring the way, and says that an angry fox had come by the house, leaving behind a tantō knife.

On the spring day of Hinamatsuri (the Doll Festival), a boy spots a small girl dressed in pink in his house.

A strange woman (the Yuki-onna of Japanese folklore) appears out of nowhere and attempts to lure the last conscious man into giving in to his death.

A discharged Japanese company commander is walking down a deserted road at dusk, on his way back home from fighting in the Second World War.

The commander's entire third platoon, led by a young lieutenant brandishing an officer's sword, then marches out of the tunnel.

An art student finds himself inside the world of Vincent van Gogh's artwork, where he meets the artist in a field and converses with him.

He elaborates that, by dusk, the horns cause them to feel excruciating pain; however, they cannot die, so they simply howl in agony during the night.

[a][8] Assistant director Takashi Koizumi said that work on the screenplay for Dreams began in June or July 1986 in Gotemba, Shizuoka.

[10] Despite coming off of the award-winning Dersu Uzala (1975) and Kagemusha (1980) and the critically acclaimed Ran (1985), Kurosawa had trouble financing the film.

[8] Rejected by his usual studio Toho, Bilge Ebiri wrote that many in the Japanese film industry knew Kurosawa's projects rarely turned a major profit, but also wrote the director knew that the studio heads were concerned about the film's "attack on the country's nuclear power program.

"[8] American director Steven Spielberg, a fan of Kurosawa, helped get the director a deal with Warner Bros., while George Lucas, who previously helped Kurosawa finance Kagemusha, had his company Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) provide the special effects for Dreams at cost.

[15] Mieko Harada, who plays the snow woman in the sequence, also appears as an extra in "The Village of the Water Mills" with her infant child on her back.

[6] When discussing who could play the Dutch painter with Francis Ford Coppola, Kurosawa said Scorsese was the only person who came to mind and asked him via a letter.

[16] In their brief prior meeting, Scorsese had expressed ideas to the Japanese director about "saving cinema", and Kurosawa said that is how he viewed Van Gogh.

[9] About 100 crows captured by locals in Hokkaido were kept in cages hidden in the field on either side of the frame and were released on a cue from Scorsese.

[9] The segment, and the film as a whole, ends with the director's stand-in walking out of the frame as "In the Village" from the Caucasian Sketches by Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov plays.

[19] Titled "A Wonderful Dream", the cancelled final sequence featured "I" having breakfast in a foreign hotel when he hears a loud commotion and turns on the television to see announcers from various countries reveal that humanity has staved off nuclear extinction with a global peace treaty having been signed.

In a move similar to the fourth wall-breaking scene of Kurosawa's One Wonderful Sunday (1947), the film was set to end with the viewing audience being called upon to join in with the applause.

[19] Coppola even gave Kurosawa some advice on how to save money for the long shots of crowds by cutting cork into human shapes and placing them in flowing water to simulate jostling and shoving.

[19] With the scrapping of "A Wonderful Dream", "The Village of the Water Mills" segment was moved from sixth place, to the film's last.

[19] In an interview with Nobuhiko Obayashi, Kurosawa described another sequence he really wanted to make that featured the asura at Kōfuku-ji coming to life and juggling the Temple of the Golden Pavilion, Kiyomizu-dera and others while its three faces argue with each other, before deciding to watch the moon rise at Mount Wakakusa.

"[13] Jim Bailey of the Los Angeles Times reported that another sequence was scrapped due to how much it would cost to use special effects to make people appear to be flying.

"[23] The Encyclopedia of International Film praised Kurosawa in relation to Dreams as having "long been a master of complex narrative.

The site's critics' consensus reads: "This late-career anthology by Akira Kurosawa often confirms that Dreams are more interesting to the dreamer than their audience, but the directorial master still delivers opulent visions with a generous dose of heart.

[29][30] Both editions feature a new 4K restoration, headed by Lee Kline, technical director of the Criterion Collection, and supervised by one of the film's cinematographers, Shoji Ueda.