A beautiful looking series of eight vignettes from the great Japanese director Akira Kurosawa, then aged 81. They follow a young boy from childhood to old age and feature the themes of man's need to respect nature and the planet he lives on - and the obligatory cry for peace from a man who saw at first hand the effects of nuclear devices on his people. There is even a rare cameo appearance by director Martin Scorsese as the artist Vincent Van Gogh, who appears inside his own paintings thanks to the special effects genius of Industrial Light and Magic. But no matter how good the film looks, it is drawn out and verbose and ends up a bum-numbing experience for all but Kurosawa's most devoted followers.

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