Drive My Car

Borrowing its title from a Beatles song and storyline from on one of Haruki Murakami's short stories, Hamaguchi's almost three-hour long, suggestive masterpiece is firmly rooted in both Western and Japanese culture. The film was praised during this year's edition of the Cannes Film Festival, and won the award for best screenplay.

When theater director, actor, and fresh widower Kafuku (Nishijima) travels to Hiroshima to direct a multilingual production of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, he feels more alienated than ever. In the middle of his own identity crisis, he is also confronted with the fact that he is turning blind on one eye, and he has to hire a driver for his beloved red Saab 900. The conversations with the young, female driver in the bright red Saab become an important basis in Kafuku's attempt to confront his own demons, in the gray and diffuse urban landscape of Hiroshima and in the increasingly challenging rehearsals of the play.

Jon Sæter

Director

Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (f. 1978) from Kanagawa is one of the biggest names in Japanese cinema. With an education from Tokyo University of Arts, Hamaguchi has cited the films of John Cassavetes as being one of his greatest sources of inspiration. He is known for Happy Hour (2015) and Asako I&II (2018), and with his two 2021 films he won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at the Berlinale and Best Screenplay at Cannes.

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