DRIVE MY CAR

Japan, 2021, 179 minutes, Colour.

Hidetoshi Nishijima, Toko Miura, Reika Kirishima, Yoo-rim Park, Dae-Young Jin, Sonia Yuan, Perry Dixon.

Directed by Ryusuke Hamguchi.

A multi-awarded Japanese film, Best Screenplay in Cannes, 2021, as well as winning the Ecumenical (Catholics and Protestants) Prize. It is based on some short stories in a collection entitled Men Without Women. And, this is partly the theme of this film version.

It needs to be noted that the film runs for three hours. Some audiences have been exhilarated. Some have found the film hard going – and the suggestion might be that the film is an interpretation of Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, the director listening to tapes as he is driven to work, cast readings, rehearsals, some scenes of performance, the screenplay relying on the audience identifying with the text, finding the text a way into understanding the characters and their personal crises and dilemmas. And, part of the finale is quite a moving ending of the play.

In fact, the film opens with a 40 minute prologue, introducing the central characters, the actor and Director, Kafuku (a pleasingly restrained, and often understated performance by Hidetoshi Nishijima) and his wife, Oto, who shares stories and details with him as she writes screenplays for television. There is a loving relationship between the two, but some sad undertones, the death of their daughter from pneumonia at the age of four, the effect on Oto and her relationships with men.

For a moment, with a scene from Waiting for Godot, suggestions are that the film is going to be tragic. It does have some tragic moments but, as with Uncle Vanya, there is a long and complex road towards peace and some redemption.

After the prologue, the action takes up, two years later, in the city of Hiroshima (and the audience is treated to various vistas of the city as Well Is the local countryside and an island with a beautiful views of the sea).  Kafuku has been invited as guest director at a local theatre festival, intending to put on, as expected, Uncle Vanya. Applications for auditions have been made by cast from Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Philippines and there are various readings. Striking is an audition by young woman who is mute but can hear, Korean background, acting through sign language (and, with surtitles at performances, we see her acting skills, empathy and pathos).

The host for the festival is also Korean and we met his wife who entertains the director and his driver to a meal.

Speaking of the driver, she is a young woman (perhaps many in the audience, like this reviewer, presupposing that the driver would be male). A condition of the festival is that guests must be chauffeured because of previous legal difficulties with an accident. The director, who does suffer from glaucoma, loves his car of 15 years but entrust himself to Masaki, Toko Miura, a 23-year-old from the country, who gradually reveals her rather sad story, a harsh mother who may have suffered from mental illness, a landslide and disaster on the house, her skills in driving. Gradually, Kafuku and the chauffeur become comfortable with each other, the director trusting the driver, the driver becoming more interested in his work, listening to the tapes during the travelling, being invited to watch rehearsals.

The film works well on the level of performances, emotional complexities, especially the director’s wariness of a young actor with whom his wife had previously been familiar. This leads to an unexpected crisis.

Not a spoiler, but happy to note that the film has two endings, bringing to a satisfying conclusion the Uncle Vanya theme as well as a covid-2020 sequence, reminding the audience that life does and must go on.

1. The range of awards, international? Screenplay, direction, performance?
2. A Japanese story, immersing the audience in Japan, locations, situations, characters?
3. The opening in Tokyo, apartments, studios, airports, streets and buildings? The transition to Hiroshima, the vistas of the city, the vistas of the island, the theatre, readings and rehearsals? The countryside, the visit to the town, the hill and the landslide? And the finale, 2021, the contemporary supermarket?
4. The original book and story, Men Without Women? Elements from other stories? The title and the relevant theme?
5. The scene from Waiting for Godot? The two men, the conversation, the tree, the touch of despair, the possibility of hanging? But the transition away from Godot to Uncle Vanya?
6. The importance of Uncle Vanya, Chekhov’s play, characters, themes, the end of the 19^th century, to Japan in the 21^st-century? KAFUKU acting in the play, in the aftermath of his wife’s death and his despair? The continued reading of the text in the car, the number of readings, auditions, rehearsals, final performance? The pathos of the mute actress and her signing, comforting Vanya? Comforting Kafuku?
7. The 40 minute prologue, husband and wife, rapport between the two, the sexual relationship and passion, the discussion about the stories, the wife and the various leads, the student going into the neighbouring house, the fellow-student, stalking, perceptions, leaving a trace, the tampon, everything normal at school, eventually the passion taking over? And the imagery of the lamprey, sucking on the rock, the other fish? And the themes of a stranger on the staircase? The performance of the plays for television, the film crew and his theatre work, the revelation of the death of their daughter, the visit to her grave, pneumonia at the age of four? The tension in the relationship, KAFUKU and his flight, delayed, the return home, the other man in the house, his retreating, not saying anything? His wife’s phone call, urging a conversation, his delay, returning home to find her dead, the cerebral haemorrhage? The sadness of her funeral?
8. Two years later, who resuming his life, going to Hiroshima, meeting with the committee, the island house, the beauty, introduction to the driver, his wanting to drive his car, his beloved car of 15 years, and the audience knowing the background of his hitting another car, the doctor and the glaucoma and the drops? His reluctance to let anyone else drive, the explanation of the contract and the conditions, agreeing?
9. The auditions, the international range, the performances? The young man from the past he met with his wife? His puzzle about his presence? The audition with the young woman from Taiwan? The introduction of the Korean actress with her sign language, the host inviting him to dinner, the discovery that the actress was his wife, the pleasant meal, the driver present?
10. The driver, the gradual revelation of her story, age 23, her hard life, the absent father, the harsh mother, driving her to the train and back, one hour each way, every night? Her mother sleeping, the driver driving smoothly to avoid punishment from the mother? Her expertise in driving? Her impassive face, ever present, listening to the Uncle Vanya tapes, gradual conversation, Kafuku praising her driving, her being complimented, his taking her to the meal? Driving the young man, her smoking, the cold, sitting in the car? The gradual revelation about her life, leaving home, driving the trucks? Her being invited to watch the rehearsal in the park? Her advice to Kafuku, his wanting to see her home, the drive, the visit, the house, its destruction, the story of not going back to save her mother knowing she was in the house? Blame herself, Kafuku blaming himself for being late when his wife died? The driver’s memories of her mother’s alter ego and so caring, whether she had mental illness or not?
11. The young actor, his devotion to the director’s wife, working in her television plays, his assuming a debonair style, womanising, with the Taiwanese actress and then having the accident, being late and apologising? Having drinks with the director, explaining himself? His sensitivity to paparazzi and photographers? His fight with the young man, the police, the arrest, his pleading guilty? The effect on his life – especially after the long discussion with the director about the text, the actor’s feeling empty, letting the text speak to him and elicit responses?
12. The rehearsal in the park, the readiness for performance? The effect of the arrest, the challenge from the directors, to abandon the performance or is the director to play Uncle Vanya? His going away with the driver, the reflection?
13. The final sequence, the end of Uncle Vanya, the actress and her sign language, the effect on Vanya and on Kafaku, a moving ending?
14. And the epilogue, the driver in the supermarket, ordinary life going on?