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Posted by Grant Watson

https://fictionmachine.com/2025/11/30/review-to-sleep-so-as-to-dream-1986/

http://fictionmachine.com/?p=21692

Hayashi Kaizo’s 1986 directorial debut To Sleep So As To Dream is a jaw-dropping exercise in nostalgia, post-modernist reflection, and cinema history. What makes it particularly impressive is that Hayashi was self-trained: while most Japanese directors worked their way up from director’s assistant to fully-fledged film-makers, Hayashi learned as he went and created a bona fide work of art in the process. The film, which did play a number of international festivals at the time, remained largely unknown outside of Japan until the release of Arrow Film’s excellent bluray edition. They should be commended for raising its profile so effectively. This is brilliant, idiosyncratic stuff.

A young woman named Bellflower has been kidnapped. Her grandmother, a retired silent film performer, hires a private detective to track down the parties responsible and exchange Bellflower for the ransom.

It is a simple, rather archetypal premise. What makes the film so distinctive is how it is itself a largely silent picture, shot in black and white with limited sound effects and dialogue. The villains of the piece declare themselves to be M Pathe & Co, one of Japan’s original four film production companies. The detective’s investigation follows a highly artificial trail of riddles and puzzles. Finally, all of the story elements appear linked to a strange silent movie serial that was never completed.

To Sleep So As To Dream exercises a deliberately vague and unfamiliar relationship with history and period settings. Some elements are drawn directly from turn-of-the-century silent cinema. Others seem inspired by the 1920s or even the 1950s. Historical elements are sometimes based on fact, but more often are invented by Hayashi Kaizo. The standard conventions of Japanese silent cinema are broadly observed – there is even a lengthy sequence depicting a live band and narrator accompanying an in-universe silent movie screening – but ultimately the rules are observed in the main so that Hayashi can break them someplace else. It is a knowing pastiche, but it is also a carefully composed deconstruction of its key elements. There have been a number of well-developed takes on silent cinema in recent decades, notably Rolf de Heer’s Dr Plonk (2007) and Michel Hazanavicius’ The Artist (2011). To Sleep So As To Dream predates them both, and feels superior to both. It is an exceptional and original artistic work.

A highlight of the film’s cast is genuine silent film actor Fukamizu Fujiko, who retired from acting for 45 years before returning here. She is joined by Yoshida Yoshio, an actor whose career started in 1951; this would be his final film role. Likewise with Kusajima Kyoko, particularly effective in a small role as a comb-seller. Her career started in 1939. Sano Shiro pitches his performance as private detective Uotsuka perfectly, giving a heightened turn with plenty of odd little idiosyncracies. Otake Koji offers excellent comedy value as Uotsuka’s plucky assistant Kobayashi.

This is a truly superb and innovative feature. Its inventiveness is hugely impressive, and it successfully swings back and forth between charming comedy and a deeply melancholic sense of drama. Critically, it maintains an open attitude to its story and characters. One may question by its conclusion what it all meant, and no doubt different viewers are going to have different answers to that question.

https://fictionmachine.com/2025/11/30/review-to-sleep-so-as-to-dream-1986/

http://fictionmachine.com/?p=21692