Village of Dreams is intended as a series of childhood anecdotes – the film is based on the childhood reminiscences of two real-life twin storybook artists Seizo and Yukihiko Tashima, who both play themselves during the present-day wraparound segments. However, these anecdotes are lazily constructed and the film without any real dramatic structure. It only drifts through incidents. One or two of these are amusing – like the scene where one of the twins is sentenced to detention after school and gets out of it by telling the principal he is the other, whereupon the other twin does as well. But most of what happens is either slight or the director’s approach whimsical – like having the thoughts of a fish subtitled as they try to catch it. The lack of dramatic construction is annoying – one of the big points we are supposed to be affected by is how it was wrong that Senji, the boy the twins befriend, is turned away by their mother – but we never learn why Senji was turned away or why he subsequently left school. The two young actors playing the twins are play naturalistically together but the film goes on forever.

I include Village of Dreams here for its occasional Magical Realist elements, including a troika of MacBeth-like Japanese witches who sit by commenting on the two boys and deciding whether or not to punish them for their mischief-making.