AnneCarlini.com Home
 
  Giveaways!
  Insider Gossip
  Monthly Hot Picks
  Book Reviews
  CD Reviews
  Concert Reviews
  DVD Reviews
  Game Reviews
  Movie Reviews
  Check Out The NEW Anne Carlini Productions!
  [NEW] Belouis Some (2024)
  [NEW] Jay Aston’s Gene Loves Jezebel (2024)
  [NEW] Mark Ruffalo (‘Poor Things’)
  [NEW] Paul Giamatti (‘The Holdovers’)
  [NEW] Crystal Gayle
  [NEW] Ellen Foley
  Gotham Knights [David Russo - Composer]
  The Home of WAXEN WARES Candles!
  Michigan Siding Company for ALL Your Outdoor Needs
  MTU Hypnosis for ALL your Day-To-Day Needs!
  COMMENTS FROM EXCLUSIVE MAGAZINE READERS!


©2024 annecarlini.com
Ghost Canyon

To Sleep So As To Dream: Special Edition
(Morio Agata, Kenji Endo, Fujiko Fukamizu, et al / Blu-ray / NR / (1986) 2022 / Arrow Films – MVD Visual)

Overview: 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.

Blu-ray Verdict: 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.

In truth, this is the most impossibly beautiful film I have ever seen. A mediation on loss, longing, beauty and time, using old film techniques, humor, Dadaism, and glorious black and white cinematography, it is also a fanciful homage to early silent cinema in Japan.

Especially the Benshi, the silent film narrators. This was a tradition in Russia and Poland as well, a narrator or actor would read the inter-titles of a silent film, adding commentary and at times their own political bent to a feature.

Indeed, this was popular throughout silent cinema’s reign, and particularly relevant in industrial or agrarian communities with lower literacy rates. Shunsui Matsuda, a Benshi who traveled throughout coal mining regions of post-war Japan where shortages made re-runs of silent films popular entertainment, appears in Hayashi’s film.

On a lovely side note, Mr. Matsuda is also to be lauded for his work preserving old films, many prints he acquired by searching in thrift shops and restoring them. His excellent book, The Benshi: Japanese Silent Film Narrators, details both his work and the Benshi tradition.

In many ways comparable to Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s Once Upon a Time Cinema, though without the political commentary, Hayashi’s work creates a complete magical world combining both the past and the present and is now out here via Arrow Films/MVD Visual as a stunning Blu-ray Special Edition. This is a Widescreen Presentation (1.85:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs and comes with the Special Features of:

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

www.MVDvisual.com





...Archives