Drive My Car [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Overview

"Yûsuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima) lives as a successful thespian and theater director in a loving marriage with his wife, Oto (Reika Kirishima), a playwright. However, their seemingly idyllic life embarks on a downward spiral after Oto inexplicably disappears. Two years later and believing his wife may be dead, Yûsuke receives an invitation to direct a play in Hiroshima. As he travels to and from the theater, he begins a turbulent and intense relationship with his female chauffeur, Misaki Watari (Tôko Miura). Based on the short story by Haruki Murakami. Directed by Ryûsuke Hamaguchi."

Product Details

Release Date:	07/19/2022
UPC:	0715515274814
Original Release:	2021
Source:	Criterion Collection
Language:	English
Time:	2:59:00
Sales rank:	8,175

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Hidetoshi Nishijima	Yûsuke Kafuku
Tôko Miura	Misaki Watari
Reika Kirishima	Oto Kafuku, Yûsuke's Wife
Masaki Okada	Koji Takatsuki
Park Yu-rim	Lee Yoon-a
Jin Dae-yeon	Kon Yoon-su
Sonia Yuan	Janice Chang
Satoko Abe	Yuhara
Hiroko Matsuda	Yumi Etô
Park Yoo-rim	Lee Yoon-a
Jin Daeyeon	Kon Yoon-su
Toshiaki Inomata	Takashi Kimura
Soo-young Park	Actor
Daihachi Yoshida	Actor
Eiko Ishibashi	Composer

Technical Credits

Yuji Sadai	Executive Producer,Executive Producer
Kazuo Nakanishi	Executive Producer

Editorial Reviews

Haruki Murakami is a Japanese writer whose work has won numerous prizes and his stories have been translated into over 50 languages. It's no wonder a film based on one of his short stories has also won several awards. Drive My Car, which is based on Murakami's story of the same name and directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, illustrates the complicated feelings of loss and grief. Drive My Car revolves around theater actor and director Yusuke Kafuku (played by Hidetoshi Nishijima) and how he grapples with the death of his wife Oto (played by Reika Kirishima). Though Oto only appears in the first quarter of the movie, Kafuku's wife continues to haunt him throughout the narrative. Hamaguchi chooses not to roll the opening credits until two years have passed after Oto's death, forty minutes into the film, signifying that this story is really Kafuku's and what he will do now that his beloved wife is gone. Though Kafuku's loss is great and the pain deep, it takes time for the theater director to have his own catharsis. There are earlier losses he must feel before he can truly mourn his dead wife. Kafuku must deal with the death of his daughter decades earlier and his beloved Oto's infidelity. While working through his grief, Kafuku trains actors to perform a multi-lingual stage adaptation of Anton Chekov's classic, Uncle Vanya. Chekov's play serves as the perfect companion piece to Kafuku's empty longings. Like Vanya, Kafuku yearns for what he cannot have. Vanya wishes for a beautiful wife and an income independent of his former brother-in-law. Kafuku only desires to see his wife again, to hold her, to confront her about the other lovers, to offer both forgiveness and apology. Other characters in Drive My Car are also dealing with tremendous loss. One such actor is breakout star, Park Yu-rim who plays Lee Yoo-na, a mute Korean woman who can hear but cannot speak. She is chosen for a part in Uncle Vanya, and she signs all of her lines as they are translated on a screen for the live audience. Park brings such raw vulnerability to every scene she's in that it's hard to look elsewhere. Finally, there's Toko Miura who portrays Misaki Watari, the young woman hired to drive Kafuku's car while he prepares for the production of Uncle Vanya. The two bond over shared trauma, and somehow, they both find a way to push through the agony of grief. If the title Drive My Car is significant, then Watari is the subject of the sentence, so it's her character viewers are meant to care most about. With a running time of three hours, Drive My Car may sound like it's an overly long movie. However, Hamaguchi delivers a powerful look into how we mourn those who hurt us. His characters are well-developed, and the final two scenes are well-earned. Ultimately, Kafuku is forced to play the role of Vanya, who gives up his suicide plan while complaining of his heavy heart. His niece, Sonya, played by Lee Yoo-na, signs to him, "You've had no joy in your life; but wait, Uncle Vanya, wait…. We shall rest." Director Hamaguchi knows when a person's heart has gone through all that his characters have, what it needs most is a deep breath and a break from its toil. Though the film is full of heavy themes, the audience will experience the catharsis Kafuku so desperately needed. Both the protagonist and the viewer can breathe again by the end.