If your recurring dreams involve making making your own films, Kurosawa has some advice. “If you really want to make films, write screenplays. All you need to write a script is paper and a pencil. It’s only through writing scripts that you learn specifics about the structure of film and what cinema is”

— Magali Roman «The Dreams of Akira Kurosawa» (The Rikumo Journal, 2017)

In the last dream, a man (once again, a stand-in for Kurosawa) walks into a sun-drenched country village. A wise old man who claims to be over a hundred years old explains how his village has avoided modern technologies in favor of a simple way of life. When Kurosawa looks puzzled, the wise man tells him that man has become addicted to convenience. Convenience leads to laziness, anxiety, and a disconnect with the natural world. The village doesn’t need doesn’t need tractors to work the paddy fields because they have cows and oxen, and it doesn’t need electricity because they have candles and linseed oil.

A baffled Kurosawa says, “But the night is dark"

“Yes, the night is dark,” says the old man, “It’s supposed to be dark.”

The scene ends with a colorful funeral procession for an elder who has died at the ripe age of 100 years old. The women, children, and men of the village parade down the road in colorful traditional dress, singing and dancing in an uplifting celebration of death. The wise man separates from Kurosawa to join the procession, commenting, “Some people say life is hard to live. That’s just talk. It’s good to be alive”

— Magali Roman «The Dreams of Akira Kurosawa» (The Rikumo Journal, 2017)