2021 Winner, Drive My Car

Drive My Car

Director: Ryusuke Hamaguchi

Distributed by:  Bitters End

Released: August 2021

Country: Japan

A simple story with an array of complexities, Drive My Car is essentially about communication, or more specifically, our maddening inability to connect to each other in the ways that are most important. The story is of an actor/director who takes it upon himself to stage plays in which the actors speak different languages. The company rehearse their lines over and over to get the timing down, but the younger Japanese lead actor never really understands what all the other actors are saying, as they speak in Korean, Hmong, Cantonese, and even Korean Sign Language. It’s a Tower of Babel production of Chehov’s Uncle Vanya, a story about the wasting of life and love, which in many ways mirrors the events of Drive My Car.

Actor/Director Kafuku and Driver Misaki

Yūsuke Kafuku is the famed actor/director, the ultimate professional who seems to be walking through his life without aim. A tragedy from the past has caused a deep wound in his marriage to his beautiful and equally artistic wife, Oto. While the two are connected deeply, out of love and possibly out of the tragedy they shared, there is a wall between them, an inability to connect to each other in the ways that are most important. One way Oto does show her love is to create cassette tapes of dialogue for her husband, so that he can listen to the lines of other actors as he drives to and from work, with blanks left for him to speak in order to practice the play’s timing.

Kafuku agrees to direct Uncle Vanya for a theater company in Hiroshima, stipulating that the company obtain for him a hotel about an hour away from the theater so that he can drive his prized red Saab to and from each day, and thus be able to listen to his cassettes and perfect the production. However, the company tells him that for because of a past incident, the company requires that a hired driver be used to drive Kafuku each day. Kafuku is reluctant to cede control of the car, but sees that the hired driver, Misaki, a somewhat emotionally damaged 23-year old woman, is more than up to the task.

Another theme of the film is about letting go. The characters tend to be unable or unwilling to address their problems and because of this, they keep them inside as if their sufferings are treasured. We all do this and know others who do. And in seeing the Kafuku, Misaki, and other characters engage in this sort of self-damaging, or at least non-productive, behavior, we want to go up to them and shake some sense into them. They are good people who for one reason or another choose to hang onto what bogs them down.

From the play Uncle Vanya

Some two hour films seem like three; this was a three hour one that seemed like two. The director, Ryusuke Hamaguchi, certainly earned his Best Director Oscar nomination for putting all these moving parts into one flowing story and giving us great visuals to look at along the way. Drive My Car has that rare quality in a film of making you think about it long after you are done watching it. The concept of thoughtfully saying what you mean and listening to what the other person is really saying a lesson for our times. More timeless is the need to let go—whether it’s letting somone else drive, forgiving someone who wronged you, or giving up that scar that represents the hurt you hold onto.

The Title: Japanese: ドライブ・マイ・カー, or: Doraibu Mai Kā

Culture: Hamaguchi uses culture and language masterfully to underscore his themes. The multilingual aspect of Kufuku’s productions are almost comical, as the actors have to pretend to understand what the other characters are saying. Featured are the play Waiting for Godot, by Irish playwright Samuel Becket, and Uncle Vanya, by Russian author Anton Chekov, and there are parallels between the characters of Chekov’ play and the characters in the film, much like 2017 winner from Iran, The Salesman. Subtly, even the titular car has meaning—Kufuku drives his pristine red Saab, which has its wheel on the left side of the car, through Japan, where oddly enough they drive on the left.

Agenda danger: There are layers upon layers of meaning in this profound movie but refreshingly, nothing overtly political.

Best Picture that year: CODA

Rating: Parasite won Best Picture a few years ago, the first non-English film to do so. Drive My Car, which is the better flim, deserved the nominations it got for that award, as well as Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.