In Kurosawa’s film “Dreams,” I decided to watch The Peach Orchard clips. It starts off with a little Japanese boy who sees an illusion of a girl and follows her outside. He thinks she’s real, and the girl later leads him to a bunch of other illusions of people, or gods, who are blaming the boy’s family for cutting down the peach orchards that were outside of his home. The peach orchards had a significant meaning to the gods, and the boy quickly defends himself by saying that he fought for the orchards to not be cut down because he loved them. He cries and feels very emotional so the people feel empathy for him and forgive him. He dreams of the orchards being bloomed again and is happy, until he realizes that it’s only a dream and the trees are actually cut down.
His respect for the orchards increases more after he sees the illusion of the girl. You can tell that he feels more emotion towards the disappearance of the trees and he has a better appreciation for nature and beauty. In relation to the Shinto belief, I think this story emphasizes the importance of myth and kami (deities). Kami believe that spirituality is vital and that humanity, nature, and the spirits/gods intertwine with one another. That is why the gods who spoke with the little boy were not happy that what was important to them (the peach orchards) were destroyed.
According to Shinto ethics, myths reinforce ethics. For example, as a result of the little boy's family destroying the peach orchards, he was punished. His desire to be with the attractive girl was taken away because of what his family did. By the end of the clip, he spots just one tree that is an illusion and the girl is inside the tree for only a split second. Then the tree disappears. I think this symbolizes how the boy has lost touch with nature and he had an epiphany of what happened to him. This dream was very artistic in the way it was portrayed of how important nature is.
I read your response on my blog and it's nice to know that I'm not the only one who viewed it in that sense. I enjoyed reading your post because you pointed out something that I didn't notice when I watched The Peach Orchards. I stop to think or realize that the boy felt like he had lost touch with nature and now that you've pointed that out I can definitely see that as I reflect on this clip.
ReplyDeleteI wrote about the Peach Orchard too. Although, I didn't come to the same conclusions you did, I like how you approached it and I see how you would have come to those conclusions. I didn't think that he had lost touch with nature, i though perhaps it was something his parents did even though he loved it so much.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very good blog. I did my blog on the same clip. I think this clip was very moving because at first they was making fun of him for crying but once he explained why, they had sympathy. When I watched the clip I gathered something else, but I really like your point of view about the clip.
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