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Drive My Car (film)

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Drive My Car
Theatrical release poster
Directed byRyusuke Hamaguchi
Screenplay by
  • Ryusuke Hamaguchi
  • Takamasa Oe
Based on"Drive My Car"
by Haruki Murakami
Produced by
  • Teruhisa Yamamoto
Starring
CinematographyHidetoshi Shinomiya
Edited byAzusa Yamazaki
Music byEiko Ishibashi
Production
companies
Distributed byBitters End (Japan)
Release dates
  • 11 July 2021 (2021-07-11) (Cannes)
  • 20 August 2021 (2021-08-20) (Japan)
Running time
179 minutes
CountryJapan
LanguageJapanese
Box office$3.8 million[1][2]

Drive My Car (Japanese: ドライブ・マイ・カー, Hepburn: Doraibu mai kā) is a 2021 Japanese drama film co-written and directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi. It is primarily based on Haruki Murakami's short story of the same name from his 2014 collection Men Without Women, while taking inspiration from other stories in it.[3] The film follows Yūsuke Kafuku (played by Hidetoshi Nishijima) as he directs a multilingual production of Uncle Vanya in Hiroshima and grapples with the death of his wife, Oto.

Drive My Car had its world premiere at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for the Palme d'Or and won three awards, including Best Screenplay. The film received widespread critical acclaim, with many declaring it one of the best films of 2021.[4][5][6] It earned four nominations at the 94th Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best International Feature Film, and Best Adapted Screenplay.[7] It is the first Japanese film nominated for Best Picture.[8] At the 79th Golden Globe Awards, the film won Best Foreign Language Film.

Plot

Actor and theater director Yūsuke Kafuku is married to Oto, a screenwriter. Oto conceives her stories during sex and narrates them to Yūsuke. After a performance of Waiting for Godot, Oto introduces Yūsuke to her frequent collaborator, the young actor Kōji Takatsuki. When Yūsuke returns home early one day, he finds his wife having sex with a young man. He leaves silently without being noticed and does not bring it up with her. One day, as Yūsuke is leaving for work, Oto tells him she wants to talk to him later that evening. Yūsuke returns home to find Oto dead from a brain hemorrhage. After her funeral, Yūsuke has a breakdown during a performance of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya and is unable to continue the show.

Two years later, Yūsuke accepts a residency in Hiroshima, where he will direct an adaptation of Uncle Vanya. Yūsuke casts Kōji Takatsuki, whose career has recently been hurt by improper conduct, as Uncle Vanya despite his young age and concerns for his erratic behaviors. The theater company requires that Yūsuke be chauffeured in his own car, a red Saab 900. He objects at first, but relents after the reserved young female chauffeur, Misaki Watari, reveals herself to be a skilled driver.

One night, Yūsuke meets with Kōji at a bar, where Kōji admits to loving Oto but does not mention sleeping with her. During their drives, Yūsuke and Watari begin to bond as Yūsuke tells her about Oto and the loss of their daughter, who would have been Watari's age. Watari tells him about her abusive mother who died in a mudslide five years earlier.

After another outing at a bar, Yūsuke criticizes Kōji's lack of self control. As they're leaving, Kōji slips away briefly to follow a man who had taken a photo of him without his permission. During their drive home, Yūsuke reveals to Kōji that he knew of his wife's affairs but kept quiet in fear of losing her and Kōji shares one of Oto's stories that Yūsuke had never heard in its entirety. Some days later, the police arrive at a rehearsal and arrest Kōji for killing the man who had taken pictures of him. The theater programmers offer Yūsuke a choice: either step into the role of Vanya, or cancel the play altogether.

Yūsuke asks Watari to take him to her childhood home in Hokkaido. During their car trip, Watari reveals that she could have saved her mother in the mudslide, but chose not to. Yūsuke reveals that he might have been able to save his wife had he not driven around town aimlessly. Finally, they arrive at the remains of Watari's childhood home and share a tender moment. They comfort each other, then return to Hiroshima, where Yūsuke assumes the role of Vanya and gives an impassioned performance before a live audience.

In the present day, Watari shops for groceries in South Korea. She gets into the red Saab, where a dog waits for her in the back seat.

Cast

  • Hidetoshi Nishijima as Yūsuke Kafuku
  • Tōko Miura as Misaki Watari
  • Masaki Okada as Kōji Takatsuki
  • Reika Kirishima as Oto Kafuku, Kafuku's wife
  • Park Yu-rim as Lee Yoo-na
  • Jin Dae-yeon as Gong Yoon-soo
  • Sonia Yuan as Janice Chang
  • Ahn Hwitae as Ryu Jeong-eui
  • Perry Dizon as Roy Lucelo
  • Satoko Abe as Yuhara

Production

The 2021 Japanese drama film is directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, who co-wrote the script with Takamasa Oe. It is primarily based on the short story of the same name by Haruki Murakami from his 2014 short story collection, Men Without Women.[9][10] The script also features elements from Murakami's stories "Scheherazade" and "Kino" (both also part of Men Without Women).[3] The film was originally set in Busan, South Korea, but was changed to Hiroshima due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[11]

Hamaguchi wished to incorporate the Beatles' song "Drive My Car", which the film and story are named after. However, it was too difficult to get permission for its usage. Hamaguchi instead included a string quartet by Beethoven, which is directly referenced in Murakami's original story.[12]

The original story features a yellow Saab 900 convertible, but it was changed in the film to a red Saab 900 Turbo to visually complement the Hiroshima landscape.[13]

Release and reception

Drive My Car had its world premiere at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival in competition for the Palme d'Or.[14][15]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 98% of 159 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.7/10. The website's consensus reads: "Drive My Car's imposing runtime holds a rich, patiently engrossing drama that reckons with self-acceptance and regret."[16] According to Metacritic, which assigned a weighted average score of 91 out of 100 based on 39 critics, the film received "universal acclaim".[17]

The film received a positive review from Manohla Dargis in the New York Times.[18] Writing for The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw gave the film five stars out of five and called it an "engrossing and exalting experience".[19]

Accolades

Main article: List of accolades received by Drive My Car (film)
Ryusuke Hamaguchi is nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director.

The film was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival where it won three awards including Best Screenplay.[20] Hamaguchi and Oe became the first Japanese individuals to win the Best Screenplay Award at Cannes.[21] At the 79th Golden Globe Awards, the film won Best Foreign Language Film.[22] It was picked as the Japanese entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards, making the December 2021 shortlist.[23][24] It was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director for Hamaguchi, Best International Feature Film, and Best Adapted Screenplay for Hamaguchi and co-screenwriter Takamasa Oe.[25] It is the first Japanese film nominated for Best Picture,[26] and Hamaguchi is the third Japanese director nominated for Best Director since Hiroshi Teshigahara in 1965 and Akira Kurosawa in 1985.[27]

It became the latest (and the first non-English-language film) of the only six to win Best Picture from all three major U.S. critics groups (LAFCA, NYFCC, NSFC), the other five being Goodfellas, Schindler's List, L.A. Confidential, The Social Network and The Hurt Locker.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Drive My Car (2021)". The Numbers. Nash Information Services, LLC. Retrieved 18 February 2022.
  2. ^ "Drive My Car (2021)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved 18 February 2022.
  3. ^ a b Brzeski, Patrick (9 July 2021). "Japan's Ryusuke Hamaguchi on Adapting Murakami for 'Drive My Car' and Vehicles as Confession Booths". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
  4. ^ "LA film critics pick 'Drive My Car' as year's best". The Seattle Times. 19 December 2021. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
  5. ^ "New York film critics name 'Drive My Car' best film of 2021". The Seattle Times. 3 December 2021. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
  6. ^ "'Drive My Car' Is Named Best Film of 2021 by the National Society of Film Critics". Collider. 9 January 2022. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
  7. ^ "Oscars: Full List of Nominations". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
  8. ^ Tartaglione, Nancy (8 February 2022). "Oscars: 'Drive My Car' Makes History As First Japanese Film Nominated For Best Picture". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
  9. ^ Wiseman, Andreas (1 June 2021). "The Match Factory Boards Murakami Adaptation 'Drive My Car', The Next Film From Cannes & Berlin Director Ryusuke Hamaguchi". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 3 June 2021.
  10. ^ Schilling, Mark (14 March 2021). "Japan's Silver Bear-Winner Hamaguchi Ryusuke Plots His Next Film Moves". Variety. Retrieved 3 June 2021.
  11. ^ "今夏のカンヌで日本映画史上初の脚本賞ほか4冠に輝いた、村上春樹原作「ドライブ・マイ・カー」8/20(金)公開". Asahi Family. Retrieved 20 November 2021.
  12. ^ Wong, Silvia (9 July 2021). "Berlin prize-winner Ryusuke Hamaguchi talks Cannes Competition title 'Drive My Car'". Screen Daily. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
  13. ^ 嶋田知加子 (20 August 2021). "映画「ドライブ・マイ・カー」は広島ロケの大作　カンヌ脚本賞受賞作を女子アナ＆シネマ通が語りつくす". Fuji News Network (in Japanese). Shinhiroshima Telecasting. Archived from the original on 21 August 2021. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
  14. ^ Sharf, Zack (3 June 2021). "Cannes Film Festival 2021 Lineup: Sean Baker, Wes Anderson, and More Compete for Palme d'Or". IndieWire. Retrieved 3 June 2021.
  15. ^ "DRIVE MY CAR". Festival de Cannes 2021. Retrieved 3 October 2021.
  16. ^ "Drive My Car". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved 16 January 2022.
  17. ^ "Drive My Car Reviews". Metacritic. Fandom, Inc. Retrieved 19 December 2021.
  18. ^ Dargis, Manohla (24 November 2021). "'Drive My Car' Review: A Director Takes Your Heart for a Spin". The New York Times. Retrieved 3 January 2022.
  19. ^ Bradshaw, Peter (14 July 2021). "Drive My Car review – mysterious Murakami tale of erotic and creative secrets". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 January 2022.
  20. ^ "Cannes Film Festival 2021: Full Winners List". Asia Tatler. 18 July 2021. Retrieved 18 July 2021.
  21. ^ Sato, Misuzo (18 July 2021). "'Drive My Car' wins Cannes Best Screenplay for Hamaguchi, Oe". The Asahi Shimbun. Archived from the original on 18 July 2021. Retrieved 9 October 2021.
  22. ^ "Japan's 'Drive My Car' wins Golden Globe for best non-English film". The Japan Times. 10 January 2022. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
  23. ^ ""Drive My Car" exhibited at the Academy Awards selection for Japan". Sankei. 11 October 2020. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
  24. ^ Davis, Clayton (21 December 2021). "Oscars Shortlists Include Beyoncé, 'Spider-Man' and Two Jonny Greenwood Scores as France's 'Titane' Is Snubbed". Variety. Retrieved 21 December 2021.
  25. ^ Lang, Brent; Moreau, Jordan; Grantham-Philips, Wyatte (8 February 2022). "Oscar Nominations 2022: 'Power of the Dog' Leads With 12 Nods, 'Dune' Follows With 10 (Full List)". Variety. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
  26. ^ Tartaglione, Nancy (8 February 2022). "Oscars: 'Drive My Car' Makes History As First Japanese Film Nominated For Best Picture". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
  27. ^ "米アカデミー賞候補に濱口監督「ドライブ・マイ・カー」". The Nikkei (in Japanese). 8 February 2022. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
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