Directed by:
Ryûsuke HamaguchiCinematography:
四宮秀俊Composer:
Eiko IshibashiCast:
Hidetoshi Nishijima, Tôko Miura, Masaki Okada, Reika Kirishima, Yoo-rim Park, Dae-Young Jin, Sonia Yuan, Perry Dizon, 安部聡子, 岩瀬亮, Toshiaki Inomata, Hiroko MatsudaPlots(1)
Only Ryusuke Hamaguchi - with his extraordinary sensitivity to the mysterious resonances of human interactions - could sweep up international awards and galvanize audiences everywhere with a pensive, three-hour movie about an experimental staging of an Anton Chekhov play, presented in nine languages and adapted from Haruki Murakami stories. With Drive My Car, the Japanese director has confirmed his place among contemporary cinema’s most vital voices. Two years after his wife’s unexpected death, Yusuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima) arrives in Hiroshima to direct a production of "Uncle Vanya" for a theater festival and, through relationships with an actor (Masaki Okada) with whom he shares a tangled history and a chauffeur (Toko Miura) with whom he develops a surprising rapport, finds himself confronting emotional scars. This quietly mesmerizing tale of love, art, grief, and healing is ultimately a cathartic exploration of what it means to go on living when there seems to be no road ahead. (Criterion)
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Reviews (8)
"Even if you think you know someone well, even if you love that person deeply, you can never see right into their heart. It would only hurt you. But if you try hard enough, you should be able to see inside your own. So in the end, we should try to act on our convictions and make peace with ourselves. If you really want to get to know someone, your only option is to look deep inside yourself." - Based on Haruki Murakami's short story of the same name, acclaimed director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi has made an unusually visceral movie about love and loss, guilt and emptiness, but also about the strong will not to give up, and to move on. It's really hard to get through the killer footage, but I think it's worth the time. (75%)
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No, I will not throw out superlatives and I will remain significantly reserved in my evaluation. Some directors successfully fit the adaptation of a several hundred-page novel into a two-hour blockbuster, but Hamaguchi managed to stretch the adaptation of a short story one-tenth of the size into three hours. It took me three tries to watch the film and that's not a good sign. I constantly felt like I was watching a snail on vacation, not in a rush to get anywhere. The film drags on and even though it introduces interesting motifs regarding the artistic creative process and the psychological aspect of coping with the departure of a loved one, it really doesn't deserve a higher rating. Overall impression: 55%. I am horrified at the thought of how long the adaptation of a thick tome of a 19th-century Russian classic would stretch in the hands of this director.
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I've never read anything by Murakami, nor have I seen any film adaptation of his work to date, so Drive My Car was my first encounter with this world-famous writer. I was a bit put off from the screening by the three-hour running time, but it didn't matter that much in the end. Indeed, Hamaguchi's film (and fresh Oscar winner) has a gradual but not boring narrative pace. We follow the story of director Kafuku and his driver Misaki, two people who have little in common at first glance, yet are united by guilt and the trauma of having lost a loved one. In hindsight, it could be said that the basic structure of the film isn't really that original – we've seen coming to terms with the past and the struggle with its demons elsewhere – but Drive My Car has several moments and elements that bring it to life – the behind-the-scenes preparation of a play, the blending of several cultures and languages (thumbs up for the insertion of sign language), or even the opening credits almost halfway through the film. PS: Kafuku does bring to mind the name Kafka for a reason (see the author's 2002 novel).
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I try to enrich myself with Asian cinema from time to time, so I decided to watch this film because I came across it often. It is a very slow, sensitive and thoughtful story. We have to wait longer to uncover the characters' troubled pasts, but you won't be disappointed, this is a story of escape, reconciliation, forgiveness and hope. The performances are very moving, and despite the very long running time, managed to keep my attention until the end.
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This film’s focus is on the unexpected understanding reached between a middle-aged theatre director and a young private chauffeur, who could be his daughter and has been assigned to him against his will by the theatre company. Thanks to the trust that is gradually built between them, they are able to confide in each other their traumas and secrets, which are part of a complex, multi-layered story about, among other things, the relationships of couples and lovers and the pain of losing a loved one. The whole movie takes place against the backdrop of rehearsals for Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya in a multilingual version (including South Korean sign language), while dialogue from the play is often present in other parts of the film. Despite the fact that the plot really gets going only after more than 40 minutes (when the opening credits finally appear), the length of the film is not a hindrance at all. Drive My Car is superbly written and directed from start to finish and excels not only due to its emphasis on the formal, genteel communication between the characters, but also for its many remarkable and imaginative scenes and the inclusion of several fascinating dreamlike micro-stories.
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