THE FILM
To Sleep So As To Dream (Yume Miruyoni Nemuritai)
Japan, 1986, B&W, 80 minutes. Written and directed by Kaizo Hayashi and starring Shiro Sano, Moe Kamura, Fujiko Fukamizu, Koji Otake.

Set in the post-war Tokyo of the 1950's, To Sleep So As To Dream tells the story of private detective Uozuka and his assistant Kobayashi who are hired by a mysterious elderly woman named Sakura Tsukishima to rescue her daughter Kikyo from kidnappers who make capricious ransom demands as the M. Pathe Company. Guided by the kidnapper's serpentine clues and inspired by a dreamy recording of the girl's singing, detective Uozuka - a forthright young man with a penchant for hard-boiled eggs - meets a rouge's gallery of characters on a surreal journey that takes him from the top of Tokyo Tower through shrines, mansions, shops, magic shows, carnival fairgrounds, dark side streets, and dank warehouses to, what should be, a long gone silent movie theater. Past and present, fantasy and reality continually intertwine until nothing is as it appears to be. Who is the wealthy Sakura and why does she repeatedly watch the same old silent film alone in her mansion? Just who are the M. Pathe Company and are they really after only money? Will the beautiful Kikyo ever be found? And just how many hard-boiled eggs can one man eat?

Kaizo Hayashi's To Sleep So As To Dream is a stylish homage to the roots of cinema that is by turns clever, funny, poetic, mysterious, and ultimately, quite moving. Evoking a wide span of Japanese film history that includes offshoots like the kami shibai (paper theater), where a street storyteller entertained children using picture cards, and the silent era where films were accompanied by a benshi, or silent film narrator, who added live dialogue and commentary with the accompaniment of live musicians. All this is lovingly wrapped within the conventions of the detective/mystery genre with a nod to the post-war stylings of film noir. Shot in crisply beautiful black and white with complex use of Japanese intertitles and running virtually silent except for occasional sound effects and musical snippets, To Sleep So As To Dream was considered too rigorous, offbeat and exotic for mainstream audiences in the 1980's and consequently had a very limited release in the West outside the festival circuit and is unavailable on video/DVD outside Japan. Like the silent films it evokes and celebrates To Sleep So As To Dream is rarely screened and almost forgotten today, except by those fortunate enough to have seen it.

THE DIRECTOR
Kaizo Hayashi was born in 1957 in Kyoto. After studying economics at Kyoto's Ritsumeikan University for two years, he dropped out and went to Tokyo where he became involved in the Tenjosaijiki theatre troupe of Shuji Terayama - a seminal poet/playwright/filmmaker of Japan's avant-garde. The troupe broke up after Terayama's death and Hayashi decided to become a filmmaker. Although he had no experience, Hayashi managed to raise a small budget and gather cast and crew together to film his self-produced script of To Sleep... The film went on to win a number of awards in Japan and played the festival circuit around the world (including SIFF '87). Since his debut, Hayashi has gone on to direct a series of stylish films that often evoke cinema's past. His work includes the wistful fairground fantasia Circus Boys (Niju Seiki Shonen Dokuhon), which won the Charlie Chaplin award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival; the sly pop chanbara send-up Zipang (Jipangu); the international omnibus feature Figaro Story, co-directed with Claire Denis and Alejandro Agresti; and the Maiku Hama Trilogy starring Masatoshi Nagase (Mystery Train, The Hidden Blade) as a not very suave private eye, loosely based on Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer, in a series recalling the pulp crime films of Nikkatsu studios in the 1960's.

ABOUT THE BENSHI
The benshi were performers who acted as narrators for movies during Japan's silent film era. The benshi, either male or female, stood by the side of the screen - dressed formally in either kimono or western suit, and holding a closed fan - delivered a non-stop vocal performance which involved dialogue, narration, an interpretation of content, and incidental comments while the movie was being shown. For early Japanese audiences the benshi were the big attraction for a night out at the movies and some benshi became so popular that they were billed above the films they narrated, including those imported from the West. The benshi remained the dominant element of the Japanese viewing experience until replaced by the sound film in the mid-1930's.

THE SCORE & NARRATION
To Sleep So As To Dream was screened silent. The Aono Jikken Ensemble (AJE) provided all new live music and sound effects and, in a first for the genre, benshi narration in English (translated from Kaizo Hayashi's original Japanese script with added new material by William Satake Blauvelt and Naho Shioya). The benshi narration was performed live by Ms. Shioya who translated the Japanese intertitles, did voice characterizations, sang and provided scenario information. AJE’s 'mini-orchestra' of composers Esther Sugai, Michael Shannon, Marcia Takamura, Susie Kozawa, and William Satake Blauvelt played their usual battery of dozens of traditional Asian, Western, and world instruments, found objects, children's toys, and specially created sound devices - augmented for the first time by live electronic mixing and processing. Their eclectic new score for To Sleep… featured influences ranging from traditional and contemporary Japanese music, classical composers Erik Satie and Anton Weburn, to the Modern Jazz Quartet, British TV show The Avengers and gamelan orchestras, as well as avant-garde sound experiments. AJE’s new score/narration aimed to find a balance between the classic benshi performance where the speaker dominates the proceedings and the more familiar music dominated accompaniment for silent films.
 

Musicians

William Satake Blauvelt

Taiko, tympani, wings, boxophone, chimes

Susie Kozawa

Bicycle wheel, bass balifon, jaw harp, kalimba, sound toys, found objects, inventions

Michael Shannon

Cello, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, glockenspiel, tenor saxophone, kalimba, cassette tape recorder

Marcia Takamura

Shamisen, koto, recorder, sound toys

Esther Sugai

Accordion, piano, wings, glockenspiel, kalimba, fue, flute, clarinet

Naho Shioya

Benshi, vocals, cassette tape recorder