WHEEL OF FORTUNE AND FANTASY

Japan, 2021, 121 minutes, Colour.

Directed by Ryûsuke Hamaguchi.

Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, the Japanese writer-director, may not be a name on every filmgoer’s lips. However, his Oscar-winning Drive My Car has been seen and acclaimed all around the world. Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy is the film he made before Drive My Car. And it won the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 2021. Many audiences will be eager to see this film.

And it runs for 121 minutes, an hour shorter than Drive My Car! And, it contains three episodes, three short stories, not linked by characters but rather by themes of relationships.

In many ways, the director’s style of filmmaking is straightforward, unfussy, direct, a great deal of dialogue, talking heads, the drama communicated by the performances, the strength and content of the dialogue, judicious editing so that audience interest is maintained in each of the characters.

But, audiences may be wondering during the first story, Magic (or Something Less Assuring), as it opens with a young model and a photo shoot but then spends 10 minutes with the model and her friend sitting in a taxi talking, close-up. They are discussing relationships, attraction, sharing and communication. The next part of the film is also conversation, this time the young woman going to visit her ex-boyfriend who is the man who has charmed her friend from the taxi. The model is wilful, petulant, not afraid to hurt people. He, on the other hand, is enigmatic, hostile, yet still in love. And then the woman turns up at the apartment, having left her laptop behind! Discussions and explanations.

There is an unexpected twist at the end of this story as the two women sit in a restaurant talking about the experience – and the man walks past and sees them. The director uses the device to test just where our sympathies lie and what might happen.

The second story is called The Open Door, the University Professor very cautious about propriety in his office, first encountering a young man who is literally on his knees begging for some help for his career and being refused. Later, the young married woman who is in relationship with the young man, but admires the professor and his new novel, arrives to get his autograph, read some of his text, rather laboriously explicit at times, and to trap him. Once again, there is quite a dismaying twist and the characters seen five years later. Deviousness in relationships.

The third story is somewhat plainer, Once Again, two women passing on escalators, realising that they recognise each other, then catching up, one accompanying the other to her home, talking. We learn something of the life of each of them, the occasion of a 20 year high school reunion. But, complications and the conversation arise – leading to some role-plays, highlighting how illuminating a role-play can be for both participants. The experience has been significant for the two women and the final scene makes us wonder where it will go.

Audiences will respond differently to each of the stories but each has its own merit, the quality of the dialogue, the interest in relationships, twists of fate.

Three short stories written by the director– who then went on to enlarge several short stories into a three hour-long story in Drive My Car.

1. The work of the director? Feature films? A five-hour other feature film? Several documentaries? His Oscar winning for Drive My Car?
2. Three short stories in one film? Not connected between the characters? Connected by themes of relationships, love, and touches of vengeance? The cumulative effect of watching the stories?
3. The first story, talk of magic, and something less assuring? The opening, the photo shoot, the model, the team, agreeing on success? The model and her travelling in the taxi with her friend, a 10 minute close-up sequence, conversation, discussions about Love, relationships, the model seeming young and naive, the older woman fascinated by the man, happy and his company?
4. The model, taking the taxi back, going to see her former boyfriend, his life, personality, the ups and downs of their conversation, antagonism, love, hurtful language, reconciliation? The model and her changing attitudes? The passing of two years? The tension, declarations of love? The woman returning to get her laptop and the model fleeing?
5. The third act, the two women in the restaurant, the man passing, his coming in, pretending that they did not know each other? Then the model, the revelation, the demand on the man, the woman fleeing? And then the alternate ending, the model going away and leaving the two?
6. The second story, university life, the students and the post-its on the wall, the noise from the Professor’s office, the young man on bended knee, pleading, the impervious response and denial by the professor? The transition to the young man, the woman, the sexual encounter, intense, the woman married with a child? The discussion about the professor, the young man’s resentment? The television, the professor receiving an award? The woman saying she liked the novel?
7. Her going to the professor, his insistence on keeping the door open, asking for an autograph, talking, reading his text, the explicit nature of the sexual behaviour, the professor keeping his distance? The discussion, the revelation that the woman had been recording the talk? His comments on her, her attitudes, her needs? Her changing her mind, promising to send him the record?
8. Five years later, the chance encounter in the train, the young man and his new job? The woman, divorced, proof-reader, and the revelation of her sending the tape to the university authorities and his losing his job? Her card, whether the two would meet again?
9. The third story, the premiss of the collapse of all IT and communication by radio and post? The story making little of this somewhat apocalyptic situation?
10. The class reunion, 20 years, the young woman alone, the kind woman coming to talk with her? Leaving? At the railway, the escalators, the two women seeing each other, going back, meeting, assumptions that they knew each other? The talk about the reunion? The married woman inviting the other back to her home, 15 minutes-walk?
11. Back at home, the hospitality, the woman talking about her husband and her children, getting the computer games, her surly son?
12. The realisation that each was mistaken? Different schools, different ages, awkwardness?
13. The hostess, the suggestion of role-plays, the visitor, lesbian, talking about her early relationship, her partner, leaving, marrying, some communication but then breaking it off, disappointment? Her decision to leave?
14. The walk to the railway station, the suggestion that the hostess should also do a role-play, her memories of the past, the friend with the music, the emotional repercussions?
15. The effectiveness of role-plays for those speaking, those listening, servicing of memories, surfacing of feelings?
16. And the cumulative effect of watching the three stories within the space of two hours?