Village of Dreams is based on the book of essays The Village of My Paintings, written by TASHIMA Seizo. He and his older brother TASHIMA Yukihiko are Identical twin brothers and award-winning picture book artists. They each have uniquely different styles, but share inspiration for their work in their childhood experiences in rural Japan.

Their drawings sweep us back to 1948, to a rustic hamlet in the countryside of Kochi. The twins are in third grade; they love to draw but are also known as infamous brats in the neighborhood for the pranks they play, and they encounter various shades of life in their everyday experiences.

HIGASHI Yochi and NAKAJIMA Takehiro adapted the story into a narratibe screenplay liberally. The script vividly captures the children's encounters with the many living creatures around them, natural and supernatural, filling the story with legend and imagination. The three old woman who appear in the film were inspired by the witches in Macbeth, but are portrayed uniquely as traditional Japanese figures. Emphasizing realism, great care was taken to ensure that all dialogue in the film observed the local dialect to slightest detail.