Drive My Car is a Remarkable Film

 

DRIVE MY CAR (2021)

Directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi

Bitters End, 179 minutes, R (sex, nudity, language)

In Japanese, Korean, sign language, English, German, Tagalog, etc. (subtitles)

★★★★ 1/2

 

 

 

If you don’t like slow films, steer clear of Drive My Car. If, though, you fancy the artful and provocative, this one’s for you. Before you watch, brush up on your Chekhov as Uncle Vanya is central to the plot and mood.

 

Chekhov reveled in the inner turmoil of lives that silently go off the rail, often tragically so.

We meet Yusuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima), a rising Japanese playwright, enjoying the carnal pleasures of his libidinous wife, Oto (Reika Kirishima), a TV writer who composes stories during sex. The two clearly love each other deeply, but we detect a pall of sadness before we learn why. Yusuke uses his work and red Saab 900 Turbo to fill an inner vacuum and Oto seeks human contract wherever she can find it. Yusuke knows to vacate the apartment when she’s in the sheets with a lover.

 

Move the clock ahead two years and Oto is dead, the victim of an aneurysm for which Yusuke feels guilty. In addition, he has glaucoma in one eye and must use drops to prevent losing his sight. It’s not the safest thing, but he drives to Hiroshima to become director-in-residence of a multilingual theatre company. (That’s why there are so many languages in the film; all the actors perform in their native tongues.) Yusuke intends to direct a production of Uncle Vanya, a project for which he is more confident than the actors ultimately chosen. He surprisingly casts Koji Takatsuki (Masaki Okada) for the part of Vanya, though he is too young for the part and we can tell he’s a slacker who is but half of what he should/could be. Is it a coincidence that he was one of Oto’s lovers?

 

Yusuke is withdrawn and, we surmise, not finished mourning. One condition of taking the residency is that he will stay on an island an hour from Hiroshima, presumably because he’s in no mood to fraternize any more than necessary. Nor is he happy that the theatre company’s insurance requires that he be given a driver. Yusuke can use his Saab if he wishes, but he must be chauffeured by the company’s chosen driver, a young woman named Misaki Watari (Toko Miura). She’s skillful, but also wears her attitude, troubled background, and sorrows on her sleeve. She and Yusuke will become acquainted–when he’s not endlessly rehearsing to his lines–during their daily commutes, but if you anticipate a love story, slow down!

 

Yusuke’s relationship with Misaki and the cast is reminiscent of Bob Fosse’s A Chorus Line in that everybody has a backstory that explains their personalities and behaviors. It is at this juncture that Drive My Car becomes a play within a play within a film. Some are as damaged as Yusuke or as kicked about as Misaki, but there’s also the charming and uplifting story of Lee Yoon-a (Park Yoo-rim), who is deaf and communicates via Korean sign language. Again, don’t skirt this film because it has subtitles; everyone is reliant upon them.

 

Circumstances will send Yusuke and Misaki on a marathon road trip to Hokkaido, where he must decide within 48 hours whether to play Vanya or cancel the production. Yusuke must also come to terms with grief that has mutated into selfishness and a misanthropic belief there is something unique about his pain.

 

If it sounds as if not much happens in Drive My Car, that is correct if by that you mean action or high drama. Victor Hugo observed, though, that “The ode lives upon the ideal, the epic upon the grandiose, and the drama upon the real.” This is to say that action films and scripted dramas can but offer vicarious thrills; the drama of everyday life seems like universal truth for the simple reason that it is.

 

Drive My Car won the best foreign film Oscar and three Palme d’Or prizes at Cannes. Watch this remarkable film to appreciate subtle acting that rings true and to revel in the superb cinematography of Hidetoshi Shinomiya. There are shots of both picturesque and bleak landscapes and you may be hard-pressed to decide which is the most affecting. Does Drive My Car need to be 179 minutes long? Probably not, but everything else about it is masterful.

 

Rob Weir