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March 21, 2022

To Sleep so as to Dream

Yumemiru yōni nemuritai
Kaizo Hayashi - 1986
Arrow Video BD Region A

In the interest of transparency, I should mention that I contributed to the Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for the restoration of this film. That said, that is the extent of any financial connection I have which was totally independent of Arrow Video.

If Kaizo Hayashi has any kind of name recognition, it would be for his mid 1990s trilogy of detective Maiku Hama. Beyond the phonetic play on Mike Hammer, are the stories of a young admirer of the classic hard-boiled crime dramas, with a home and office tucked near the projection booth of a rundown movie palace in Tokyo. One of the films in the trilogy is titled Stairway to the Distant Past. Hayashi loves old movies, especially old Japanese movies, and his debut feature is his love letter.

The film is immediately retro by not only taking place in the early 1930s, but by being a silent film, made to look like the films of that era. Unlike the United States and western Europe, silent films were still the standard up until about 1934, with the last films produced as late as 1938. The film within the film, featuring a ninja action hero known as the Black Mask, looks like something pulled from the vaults of a film archive. The title of that film is The Eternal Mystery. An elderly woman, Madame Cherryblossom, hires young detective Uotsuka to find her missing daughter, Bellflower. To get into greater detail is almost impossible as the film drifts seamlessly between the search for the daughter and various digressions, detours and fantasies.

The film takes place where time and place are not fully tethered to reality. Uotsuka and his assistant, Kobashi, travel in a tiny car from a later era, and listen to recording from the kidnappers on a small reel-to-reel deck. One could say that the film takes place in an imagined Tokyo that finally ends with the destruction of conventional notions of time and place all merging together.

Hayashi even has a very real connection to Japan's silent era with Fujiko Fukamizu as Madame Cherryblossom. At age 16, Ms. Fukumizu was a silent film star beginning in 1932. She retired from acting in 1941. Hayashi was able to get her back on screen forty-five years later. Initially, Hayashi wanted to cast another retired screen icon, Setsuko Hara.

Having two commentary tracks helps place To Sleep so as to Dream within the context of Hayashi's career, the film's place in both Japanese film history and the references to the silent era, and making some kind of sense of the more fantastic elements of the narrative. The first commentary is by Hayashi with his star, Shiro Sana. Part of it is a casual recollection of how the two men both had early careers in experimental theater before Hayashi was able to raise money and attract talent to make his low budget debut feature. The film was shot in 16mm. Having an experienced cinematographer, it is amazing to know that most of the film was composed of single takes with very little excised for the final cut. Tom Mes and Jasper Sharp, specialists in Japanese film history, discuss Hayashi's career and point out how the film within the film, The Eternal Mystery, resembles something shot by the action film pioneer, Daisuke Ito. Also included is a booklet with the director's statement and an essay by film historian Aaron Gerow.

Most delightful of all is the inclusion of an interview with benshi Midori Sawato. Essentially part of the presentation of silent films in Japan and celebrities in their own right, Sawato has been active since 1973. Her teacher, Shunsui Matsuda, who appears as a benshi in To Sleep so as to Dream was instrumental in salvaging many silent era films that were discarded. An additional supplement features Sawato performing as a benshi on a scene from The Eternal Mystery.

The blu-ray is sourced from the 2K restoration which positively glows.

Posted by Peter Nellhaus at March 21, 2022 07:34 AM