Yume jû-ya - Ten Variations on Sōseki's Dreams/ I

(image from the movie: The First Dream)

Sōseki is a very interesting case study. Edwin McClellan (who translated Kokoro in English) considers him the Dickens of Japan. Within the Nippon culture Sōseki is a classic of the modern literature. He is considered the most European among Japanese classics while his mastership in creating a delicate blend of Zen irony is what enchants us. He is very European indeed, just for the perfect balance of his Zen universe: we can read any of his books without any difficulty while being charmed by his Japanese specific.

My relation with his Ten Nights' Dreams was a great web adventure. I found firstly The Second Dream and posted it on my blog, just to realize later that what I had found was not the text from his book; it was something different (possibly written also by Sōseki, in another of his novels). I found then his first five dreams, translated by Chris Pearce. For the rest, I bought the eBook.

I worked like in a trance to post the texts on my blog. I attached to each dream related images and videos; I found even two videos with a beautiful girl reading the dreams in Japanese.

I commented each dream, just trying to understand better their universe. Probably it would have been better to leave them uncommented: they should be taken as-is, just give in to their spell. On the other hand, trying to comment them prolonged my pleasure.

His dreams were a riddle to be solved after hundred years (well, that's a joke, based on the fact that Sōseki used this expression, hundred years have passed, to express the atemporal nature of his stories: the riddle was to be solved sometime or never).

The movie was made in 2006 (so after only ninety-eight years, which is not exactly hundred after all :). Each dream was recreated by another filmmaker. and each of them enjoyed total freedom in treating the story. Each segment is following very loosely the text of Sōseki; we have in the movie rather ten replicas to the chapters of the book: ten variations on Sōseki's themes.

Is there any link among the segments of the movie? It seemed to me that each author tried to understand whether Sōseki had described his own dreams. Only he was too cautious to reveal anything in this respect. Were these his own dreams? Was it pure imagination? Then, was he imagining himself within each dream? As the main personage? As a witness, mixed among the other folks populating the space? Also, if he was imagining himself there, in the story, was it at the age when the book was written, in 1908? Or, was he rather trying to recreate passages from different stages of his life?

As I said, Sōseki was very careful not to leave any hint. And the filmmakers were preoccupied by the same question, trying eventually to suggest his presence.

The movie opens with a small prologue, made by Atsushi Shimizu (he is also the director of the fourth segment, as well as of the epilogue); a prologue that creates the environment for the whole movie: Sōseki is working on the manuscript of his Ten Nights' Dreams, a nice person looking a bit older than early forties (his age in 1908); a cat is meowing from somewhere, an allusion to his novel, I Am a Cat. So, the question is put from the very beginning: is Sōseki the personage of his dreams, or is he just observing the characters with a bit of irony and slight amazement, the way the cat was observing humans?

(Sōseki)