‘Ten Nights of Dreams’: You’ll need more than 10 nights to decipher these dreams

Natsume Soseki was one of the most celebrated of Japanese writers, and his book “Ten Nights of Dreams” offers a natural vehicle for moviemakers: It consists of 10 different stories, all thoroughly enigmatic.

In the opening sequence, we see the author himself (he died in 1916) declaring that the riddle contained in the dreams will only be understandable 100 years in the future. Since the book was published in 1908, the time is obviously right for an explanation.

Whatever literary merit the book had, the movie of “Ten Nights” fails to illuminate. Some of the dreams are a kick, some are boring, and almost all of them are completely baffling.

The movie corrals some large talents in the Japanese cinema. Kon Ichikawa (“The Makioka Sisters”), who died February at age 92, contributes the simplest of the tales. It’s an uncluttered look at a samurai looking for enlightenment (rendered in the style of a silent film).

Perhaps the best marriage of director and material is the third dream. Takashi Shimizu, the man who created the “Grudge” horror franchise, does eerie things with a story about a blind child who reveals a terrible legacy to the hero.

Keisuke Toyoshima’s story about a woman pursued by a bandaged monster is surreal, but it does have a funny ending. Funnier still is the next episode, directed by Suzuki Matsuo, involving a robot-dancing woodchopper (played by a hip-hop dancer named Tozawa).

Devotees of anime can fill their eyes with a segment directed by Yoshitaka Amano, a celebrated animator whose work includes the video games “Final Fantasy” and “Vampire Hunter D.” It is nice to look at, although I couldn’t guess at what’s supposed to be happening in it.

Surrealism wins in the end with a final segment by Yudai Yamaguchi, an inventive yet repulsive bit that culminates with the hero doing battle in a boxing ring with a giant pig.

This is where the movie tips over into the wackier side of recent Japanese cinema, a vein that, for me, quickly wears out its welcome. I like the zany, but when it becomes a hysterically forced style, I usually check out. There’s too much of that going on in this movie to want to dream along with it.