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Drive My Car (2021)
a.k.a Doraibu mai kā
Director: Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Plot Synopsis[]
After his wife (Reika Kirishima)'s unexpected death, Yusuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima), a renowned stage actor and director, receives an offer to direct a production of Uncle Vanya in Hiroshima. There, he begins to face the haunting mysteries his wife left behind.
Male Deaths[]
- Perry Dizon [Roy Lucelo] (Play within the film)
- Unknown Actor [The Photographer]
Female Deaths[]
- Reika Kirishima [Oto Kafuku, Kafuku's Wife]
Trivia[]
- It is the first Japanese film nominated for Best Picture.
- It's based on the short story of the same name by Haruki Murakami from his 2014 short story collection "Men Without Women," though the director acknowledged that he also took inspiration from two other stories of the eight in the collection: "Scheherazade" and "Kino."
- The film was originally set in Busan, South Korea, but was changed to Hiroshima, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Ryûsuke Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe became the first Japanese to win the Best Screenplay Award at Cannes.
- In an interview published in "The Boston Globe" on January 16, 2022, director Ryusuke Hamaguchi said that when filming either Hidetoshi Nishijima or Toko Miura in the car alone facing the camera, he would have the other actor stand next to the camera so that they feel they were still working together.
- It was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival. There, it won the Best Screenplay Award, the FIPRESCI Prize and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury.
- Ryûsuke Hamaguchi chose adapting Murakami's text for two reasons: because the characters were in a car, and also because of the questions of acting that the story explored.
- Official submission of Japan for the 'Best International Feature Film' category of the 94th Academy Awards in 2022.
- The source for "Drive My Car", the eponymous story from Haruki Murakami's "Men Without Women", runs no more than 40 pages.
- One of former President Barack Obama's 14 Favorite Films of the Year 2021.
- Listed #3 in Sight & Sound's The 50 best films of 2021 countdown.
- Kafuku's car is left-hand drive, as opposed to Japan's standard right hand drive, which every other car in the movie is. This is never commented upon.
- Listed #4 in Cahiers du Cinéma's annual Top 10 Film Award.
- The cast and crew credits don't occur till 40 minutes in.
Gallery[]
Reika Kirishima
Perry Dizon