The part of Kurosawa’s film “Dreams” that I chose to watch was the Peach Orchard. This part of the film begins with a young boy bringing food to his sister and her friends. He was very distraught when he realized that there were only 5 girls instead of 6 and this is how the story began. Just in the opening part of this scene the Shinto view on family was seen. They emphasize the importance of family and how caring their relationship should really be. As the young boy runs off to find the other girl he encounters the spirits of peach trees which his family has cut down. These spirits upset the young boy by blaming him as the reason they were cut down. The young boy begins to cry and explain that he really enjoyed the orchard and had a lot of appreciation for the peach tree orchard himself. This scene also represents another important aspect of Shinto culture which is the importance of nature. The young boy truly appreciated the peach orchard where as his family did not. The spirits almost seemed to make an example out of him and punished him for the pain that his family caused to them. Also another aspect of Shintoism was seen in this part of the film because in Shinotism everything is spititual between nature and humans. The peach tree spirits communicated with the boy and this was a great example of this. Also the idea of kami is brought into this scene because the young boy believed that the peach orchard was kami.
I'm not sure that "everything is spiritual between nature and humans." We learned in class that kami are not everywhere in all material things. It makes Shinto much more complicated, because there are no rigid rules regarding the connection between nature and humans. It based more on feelings and point of view.
ReplyDeleteI also chose the peach orchard to watch. I didn't really focus on the beginning so i didn't catch the importance on family but now that i think about it i do agree. I agree with the that the film did a great job in the orchard scene depicting the link between nature and humans.
ReplyDeleteI also watched "The Peach Orchard" for this assignment. I think the most important part of this dream is when the boy says "Peaches can be bought...But where can you buy a whole orchard in bloom?" Here we see just how much respect the young boy has for nature, spirits, kami, and Shinto as a whole. I made the same connection as you did to the Shinto lecture, spirit being represented in nature, but only the most powerful in nature can have kami representation.
ReplyDeleteI also watched this section of the film and I agree that "everything is spiritual". However Kami doesnt exist in everything. But when you seperate the spirit from the matter(tree in this case), their becomes an imbalance. This explains why the spirits were upset at the boy and his family.
ReplyDeleteYou're analysis really helps illustrate the importance of nature in the Shinto religion. The interconnectedness between nature and people is obvious within this segment of the film. People within the religion try their hardest to show their respect and this seems to be the case from the young boy answering to spirits.
ReplyDeleteI also watched "The Peach Orchard" and the more that I read other people's responses to the video clips, the more I realize that I did not pick up on alot of the themes. I thought it was so weird how the boy was freaking out over there only being 5 other people in the room instead of 6. It is interesting that this might be seen as a value of the importance of family. Even though the boy's family committed the ultimate crime of dishonor, the boy still loves and cares about his family.
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