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To Sleep So as to Dream

Play trailer To Sleep So as to Dream Released Sep 28, 1986 1h 20m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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100% Tomatometer 6 Reviews 40% Popcornmeter Fewer than 50 Ratings
Detectives seek a kidnapped actress as an elderly lady watches a film she starred in as a girl.

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To Sleep So as to Dream

Critics Reviews

View All (6) Critics Reviews
Clayton Dillard Slant Magazine An overlooked gem of 80s Japanese cinema makes its way onto Blu-ray with a stellar image transfer and robust slate of extras. Apr 17, 2022 Full Review Anton Bitel Little White Lies a melancholic love letter to the passing of time, the fading of beauty & the death of cinema itself even as its own mannered presentation suggests that there is nothing in this medium that cannot be momentarily resurrected, even as affectionate pastiche Mar 21, 2022 Full Review Walter Goodman New York Times ... after watching nearly 90 minutes of detective work with no detection, the audience may join [director Kaizo] Hayashi in his appreciation of the moviemakers who used to turn this stuff out in 15-minute segments. Jan 3, 2018 Full Review Matt Brunson Film Frenzy A playful period romp. Rated: 3/4 Apr 1, 2022 Full Review Rob Aldam Backseat Mafia A playful and inventive tribute to a bygone age. Mar 21, 2022 Full Review Panos Kotzathanasis Asian Movie Pulse "To Sleep so as to Dream" is an excellent film, which works equally well as a tribute to silent cinema and the beginning of the Japanese movie industry, a mash-up of genres, and as a compact, separate entity. Oct 25, 2020 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (2) audience reviews
william d Strange movie, and not just because it's mostly silent. The images are often so incoherent that at times I thought I was watching an extended version of the Monty Python "Confuse a Cat" sketch. (You might not get my reference but you should get my drift). To the film makers credit, however, they do offer a plausible explanation for all the craziness in the end. Kudos also for recreating what looked like an authentic silent film from the 1920s. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member Directed and written by Kaizô Hayashi — who in addition to films like Zipang, The Most Terrible Time In My Life and The Stairway to the Distant Past owns Bar Tantei, a detective themed bar in Kyoto, Japan — To Sleep as to Dream is the story of two private detectives searching for an actress who has been trapped within the reel of a silent ninja film. Private eye Uotsuka (Shiro Sano, Shin Godzilla) and his sidekick Kobayashi (Koji Otake) have been hired by Madame Cherryblossom (Fujiko Fukamizu) to find her missing daughter Bellflower (Moe Kamura, who also composed music for this movie), which leads them to a film studio and a vision of a samurai movie with no ending, a series of actors from Japan's movie past and sets by Takeo Kimura, the art designer of movies like Tokyo: The Last War, A Killer Without a Grave and many more, as well as being the oldest person to ever direct a movie, 2008's Dreaming Awake at the age of 90. A near-silent film with often only music and commentary by a benshi performer, someone who would narrate silent films for the audience, all to tell the story of a world where detectives and magicians attempt to rescue or restrain Bellflower. The M. Pathé and Company villains are obsessed with film — and aren't we, too? — through a film that I was certain did come from Japan's past long before 1986. Madame Cherryblossom keeps watching a movie with no ending, either in her memory or reality and like much of Japan's silent film past, it may have been lost to age or warfare. The film that emerges casts her missing daughter as the goal for our hero, but can real life be a love story? I'd never heard of this film and it just hit me perfectly. Be sure to seek it out and do the same for yourself. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/06/23 Full Review Read all reviews
To Sleep So as to Dream

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Cast & Crew

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Movie Info

Synopsis Detectives seek a kidnapped actress as an elderly lady watches a film she starred in as a girl.
Director
Kaizô Hayashi
Producer
Kaizô Hayashi
Screenwriter
Kaizô Hayashi
Distributor
New Yorker Films
Genre
Drama
Original Language
Japanese
Release Date (Theaters)
Sep 28, 1986, Wide
Runtime
1h 20m
Sound Mix
Mono
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