Unfolding in a series of mythic vignettes, this late work by Akira Kurosawa brings eight of the beloved director's own nighttime visions, informed by tales from Japanese folklore, to cinematic life. As a visually sumptuous journey through the master's imagination, tales of childlike wonder give way to apocalyptic apparitions: a young boy stumbles on a fox wedding in a forest; a soldier confronts the ghosts of the war dead; a power plant meltdown smothers...

"Over the past century, humankind has managed to do the impossible and rein in famine, plague, and war. For the first time ever, more people die from eating too much than from eating too little; more people die from old age than from infectious diseases; and more people commit suicide than are killed by soldiers, terrorists and criminals put together. The average American is a thousand times more likely to die from binging at McDonald's than from...