Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

To Sleep So as to Dream Blu-ray Movie Review

The black and white Bellflower of Japan.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 21, 2022

Quick! — name a film which came out in the mid-eighties which featured as least one character who could either break out from or return to a movie he or she was ostensibly appearing in. Of course virtually everyone with even a passing knowledge of films from that general time frame will probably instantly come up with The Purple Rose of Cairo. Those who like to seek out arguably more obscure titles may still not have heard of To Sleep So as to Dream, a fascinating Japanese film that came out just one year after the aforementioned Woody Allen opus, and which, like The Purple Rose of Cairo, erases an already blurry line ostensibly separating cinema from "real life", but which perhaps plays like the veritable "flip side" of Allen's postulation, since it features a female who is potentially "stuck" in a film from Japan's silent era, rather than the "escapee" in The Purple Rose of Cairo from the supposedly early days of talkies.

That seemingly "minor" difference between the silent era and the talkie era turns out to be one of the more defining separations between The Purple Rose of Cairo and To Sleep So as to Dream, since there's an almost willful disconnect between the story being told and the way it's presented in the film, which features appropriate intertitles along with fascinating if to modern eyes and ears conceits like occasional commentary from a so-called benshi, a "narrator" of silent films who was evidently a traditional feature in Japanese cinema of that time period. To Sleep So as to Dream also has probably more of a mystery element than The Purple Rose of Cairo, since the underlying "McGuffin" that sets everything into motion is a search for a missing woman, who may in fact be consigned to being held hostage (so to speak) in a silent movie.

Uotsuka (Shiro Sano) and Kobayashi (Koji Otake) are two would be private eyes who seem to be predominantly obsessed by eggs, in one of the film's more whimsical presentational elements. The two kind of come off like the Japanese equivalent of Thompson and Thompson in The Adventures of Tintin, but despite any perceived deficits in their detecting abilities, they are hired by an elderly actress named Madame Cherryblossom (Fujiko Fukamizu). Madame Cherryblossom is on the hunt for her missing daughter Bellflower (Moe Kamura), who has apparently been kidnapped.

That ultimately leads the pair to a Pathe studio which is where, as the back cover of this release perhaps understates just a bit, "things begin to get a little strange". Suffice it to say that a supposed chanbarra film from 1915 which does not seem to have an ending plays into the mystery, and that as things progress any ostensible division between the "real" world and the world of movies begins to evaporate. It's a kind of thrilling premise, smartly handled, and the self imposed strictures of more or less recreating a silent film experience gives To Sleep So as to Dream a definite "meta" quality that is quite unique.

To Sleep So as to Dream Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

To Sleep So as to Dream is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. Arrow's insert booklet contains the following information on the transfer:

To Sleep So as to Dream is presented in 1.37:1 with mono sound. The film was restored by Imagica Entertainment Media Services, Inc.

The original 16mm Kodak black and white camera negative reels were scanned in 2K on a DFT Scanity. The 2K grade and restoration were supervised by director Kaizo Hayashi and cinematographer Yuichi Nagata.

The mono soundtrack was remastered from 16mm original sound negative and a 16mm screening print by Reproducer / Magna-Tech Electronic.

The restoration was financed by the Kickstarter campaign launched in 2019* and runs three minutes longer than the original 80 minute theatrical release due to the extended end credits.

With an understanding that there are intentional variations between the supposed 1915 silent and the events happening in "contemporary" time. There is in fact a kind of remarkable uptick in both contrast and especially fine detail levels when the story cuts away from the film within a film. Near chiaroscuro lighting techniques offer sumptuously deep blacks and some very nicely modulated gray scale. Detail levels are typically excellent on all of the "real life" sequences, though some "arty" effects like backlighting can tend to give a somewhat diffused, soft appearance on occasion.

*Note: The restoration featurette included on this disc explicitly mentions a 2018 date for at least one of Kaizo Hayashi's visits to the facility doing the restoration.

To Sleep So as to Dream Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

To Sleep So as to Dream features a DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track ostensibly in Japanese, though the spoken word is not especially prevalent in this presentation, which is just one of the elements that gives the film such a distinctive flavor. Instead, effects like the whir of an old style film projector or an unexpected crowing of a rooster fill the soundstage, with occasional music and other effects added to the mix. An interesting score which is often rather percussive also is rendered with excellent fidelity. Optional English subtitles are available, but are probably more helpful in terms of intertitles than any so-called "dialogue".

To Sleep So as to Dream Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary by Kaizo Hayashi and Shiro Sano was recorded for the DVD release of the film in Japan in 2000 and is in Japanese with optional English subtitles.


• Commentary by Tom Mes and Jasper Sharp is new and features arguably two of the very best analysts of Japanese cinema together offering their thoughts.


• How Many Eggs? Shiro Sano Talks (HD; 28:49) is an appealing interview with the star of the film. Subtitled in English.


• Talking Silents: Benshi Midori Sawato Talks (HD; 18:13) is an interesting piece on the tradition of the benshi. Subtitled in English.


• Midori Sawato performs The Eternal Mystery (HD; 6:47) is a fun example of benshi-ing (?) as Sawato provides narration for the final reel of The Eternal Mystery. Subtitled in English.


• The Restoration of To Sleep So as to Dream (HD; 4:01) is a sweet overview of director Kaizo Hayashi returning to a studio to supervise the transfer and restoration of his film in 2018 from the 16mm negative. Subtitled in English.


• Fragments from Japan's Lost Silent Heyday (HD; 2:40) offers a selection of scenes from the silent jidai-geki films from the archives of the Kyoto Toy Museum.


• Trailers

  Original Theatrical Trailer (HD; 2:38)

  
  

  English Language Restored Re-release Trailer (HD; 2:38)

• Image Gallery

Additionally Arrow provides its typically well appointed insert booklet, which in this case includes a rather sweet reminiscence by director Kaizo Hayashi, along with other writing, a Hayashi filmography and technical data.

To Sleep So as to Dream Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Commentators Tom Mes and Jasper Sharp make the case that Japanese cinema of the 1980s has kind of been strangely overlooked for one reason or another, and for those who feel a bit of self improvement in that regard might be in order, there is probably no more distinctive place to start than with To Sleep So as to Dream. The "meta" aspects give this film a decidedly intellectual flavor, but it's also an intriguing mystery with a broad swath of humor added as well. Technical merits are solid and the supplementary package very appealing. Highly recommended.