Akira Kurosawa’s “Village of the Watermills” portrays a stark contrast between the technologically driven

life that has a stranglehold on most people today and a use-what-the-Earth-provides village lifestyle
which is considered primitive. “Watermill Village” is the final part of Kurosawa’s short film series
“Dreams”. It is worth watching for the cinematography alone.

My main take away from the film is that while technology has provided us with convenience, it has caused
a disconnect between us and the Earth. As if we are something separate from it. This planet has been on
a relentless cycle of creation and destruction ever since man was formed out of it. We came out of the
Earth whether you believe it’s though the dust of the ground or the mutation of a monkey. No, I’m not a
fan of the theory that we are just the seeds of some far off alien race. Despite what the guy on the History
Channel who looks like he just pulled a paper clip out of an electrical socket tells us.

Sure, technology has been nice to us so far. The ability to contact anyone within three seconds of thinking
about it, relaxing in the bed under the glow of the TV, and walking to a big box in the kitchen and pulling
out a cold drink are all great creature comforts. While the modernization of human life has seemingly
made things easier it has also caused distractions and taken away one necessity that many people
overlook, peace of mind. I’m not talking about a song by just another band out of Boston, but peace of
mind in the sense that you quiet your mind, let you thoughts go, and become aware of the
miraculousness occurring constantly around you. Too many become wrapped up in modern gadgets and
neglect this necessity of the human soul.

The film ends with a celebration of a villagers life. Celebrating death in this manner is rarely, if ever seen
in modern culture. Treating a burial in this manner emits an extreme amount of faith in a life beyond the
one we now occupy and it will take a truly enlightened group to carry it out.

The Village of the Watermills seems like a manifestation of what your own self should ideally feel like
when you’re in a meditative state: Serene, peaceful, with nothing of the outside world barging in on
you. A place which exists only for itself and which represents your inner being, after all the clutter and
noise and bullshit of the modern world is swept aside.

At the end it’s just us and nature, from which we came and to which we return, and if we try and
remember that, remember what the important things are, we may be in peace.

I think most of us deserve it.

The last dream is the “Village of the Watermills” wherein we are taken into a
place of tranquillity and natural existence; free from technology and
consumerism, and villagers only taking from nature no more than they need to
live. It’s a big shift from the nightmares encountered in the previous dreams.
The people in the village live so long that when someone passes away, they treat
it as a time to celebrate and rejoice. The overall mood of the final story is one of
comfort and healing.