To Sleep So as to Dream
Original price was: $39.95.$19.99Current price is: $19.99.
Price: $39.95 - $19.99
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Two private detectives hunt for an actress trapped within the reel of a silent ninja film in the dreamlike debut of Kaizo Hayashi (Circus Boys, Zipang), a magical double-handed cinephilic homage to the movie worlds of the 1910s and 1950s.
When private eye Uotsuka (Shiro Sano, Violent Cop, Shin Godzilla) and his sidekick Kobayashi are approached by an aged former actress, Madame Cherryblossom, to go in search of her kidnapped daughter Bellflower, their investigations lead them to the studios of the mysterious M. Pathe company. Here Uotsuka has a strange vision in which he comes face to face with the beautiful star of a 1915 chanbara film that appears to have no ending. From then on, things begin to get a little strange…
Among the most impressive and critically regarded Japanese films of the 1980s, To Sleep so as To Dream finally makes its home-video debut outside of Japan in a brand new restoration supervised by the director himself. Drifting between illusion and allusion, it is chockfull of references to Japan’s rich cinematic heritage and features cameos from a host of veteran talent and baroque sets created by Takeo Kimura, the Nikkatsu art designer fondly remembered for his flamboyant work with Seijun Suzuki in the 1960s.
SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
- Original uncompressed mono audio
- Optional English subtitles
- Brand new audio commentary by Japanese film experts Tom Mes and Jasper Sharp
- Audio commentary with director Kaizo Hayashi and lead actor Shiro Sano recorded in 2000
- How Many Eggs? Actor Shiro Sano Talks, a brand new interview with the film’s lead actor
- Talking Silents: Benshi Midori Sawato Talks, a brand new interview on early Japanese film culture and the art of the benshi silent film commentator
- Midori Sawato Performs ‘The Eternal Mystery’, an exclusive benshi performance to the film within the film
- The Restoration of To Sleep So as to Dream featurette
- Fragments from Japan’s Lost Silent Heyday, a selection of scenes from silent jidai-geki films from the Kyoto Toy Museum archives
- Original Theatrical trailer and English-language restored re-release trailers
- Image gallery
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by David Downton
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated Collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Aaron Gerow
Package Dimensions : 6.54 x 5.35 x 0.63 inches; 5.92 ounces
Director : Kaizo Hayashi
Media Format : Widescreen, Anamorphic, NTSC
Run time : 1 hour and 23 minutes
Release date : March 22, 2022
Actors : Morio Agata, Kenji Endo, Fujiko Fukamizu
Subtitles: : English
Studio : Arrow Video
ASIN : B09NRYY33T
Country of Origin : USA
Number of discs : 1
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Original price was: $39.95.$19.99Current price is: $19.99.
s –
Subtitles don’t work. Unwatchable
Subtitles are either out-of-sync or absent completely. It is unwatchable and I want my money back.
Movieline Online –
An affectionate and self-aware nod to Japanese silent cinema history
As the birth of cinema gets pushed further and further into history, fewer filmmakers â and audiences â find much fascination with its origin story. Certainly 2011âs Oscar winner The Artist was a trendy outlier but the era of silent movies is about on par with reading Latin for relaxation as far as most viewers are concerned. And Kaizo Hayashiâs To Sleep So as to Dream (1986) presents its own challenges as a post-modern play on film noir, silent cinema and experimental techniques all at the same time.A pair of sleuths are hired by a mysterious woman to track down her kidnapped daughter, following a set of riddles and an ever-increasing ransom that will ensure her safe return. But the detectives become unwitting participants in the finale of a banned silent movie that never reached its conclusion onscreenâ¦and now must bleed into real life.That is if anything about To Sleep So as to Dream is real. Blending the quirky style of David Lynch (who took on noir himself in Blue Velvet) with an affectionate nod to Japanese cinema history, Hayashi delivers an esoteric art film that defies categorization. Impossible to see outside of Japan, the film is structured like a haiku, following a dream-logic structure that reveals its meaning in the final lineâ¦but still remains pleasantly mysterious. Thereâs a patina of pretention here that can be undeniably irksome, but lovers of obscure Japanese cinema will find this one satisfyingly unique.Arrow Videoâs Blu-ray boasts a newly restored director-approved transfer along with two commentary tracks, interviews, restoration featurette, a selection of silent films, image gallery and new sleeve artwork.