Thoughts on Drive My Car

 

    On Criterion, I watched the 2021 Japanese film Drive My Car, directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, screenplay by Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe, and based on the short story of the same name by Haruki Murakami. It’s a three-hour drama that I found really compelling and engaging, about grief and loss and regret, and centering on a stage actor and director, Yūsuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima) grieving from the sudden loss of his wife, and two years later taking a residency in Hiroshima to direct a multilingual stage production of Uncle Vanya, casting actors of Taiwanese, Korean, and Japanese descent to perform their roles in their own languages, including a mute actor using Korean Sign Language.

    His wife Oto (Reika Kirishima) was a TV screenwriter, and came up with her detailed stories while having sex, narrating them out loud, and having her husband repeat them back to her later so she wouldn’t forget them. They had been married for over twenty years, and had the loss of their child at four years old, but despite their history, Oto seemed a bit of an enigma to Yūsuke, and he didn’t want to lose their dynamic as a creative artist couple.

    In his grief, he is staging the show, and he is assigned a personal chauffeur for insurance reasons, and meets Misaki (Tōko Miura), a quiet, independent young woman who is at first professional in being emotionally removed as a hired driver, then later bonds with Yūsuke, revealing the complicated history she had with her abusive late mother, and together they commiserate over their shared grief and complex feelings.

    I not only really liked the performance by Miura, as this introverted character working through a rough childhood to be financially independent through her driving skills, but I also really liked Park Yu-rim as Lee Yoo-na, the Korean mute woman who can hear and communicates in sign language. She had this quiet calm to her, and as more is revealed about her character, she becomes even more intriguing, with layers of depth. I’m surprised it was her film debut, as she really stood out in the film, and gave a stunning performance in the finale.  

    I had heard great things about this film, and I liked how quiet and peaceful it was, how it was sad without being depressing, just more contemplative on life and learning to deal with the past and move forward.