Yusuke Kafuku is a renowned theatre director, married to Oto, a successful television writer. Despite his awareness of her regular infidelities, the marriage is a passionate coupling of intellectual and creative equals. After her sudden death, whilst still unpacking his grief, Kafuku takes a job directing a production of Uncle Vanya, in Hiroshima. Due to a previous incident, the theatre company insists that he cannot drive himself around. So he is given a driver, Misaki, a quiet, self-contained young woman. Over the weeks of working with his Uncle Vanya cast, and driving around Hiroshima, Kafuku unpacks his grief, as Misaki slowly opens up about her own dark secret.
Director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi has taken a short-story by Haruki Murakami, from his collection Men Without Women, and crafted it into Drive My Car, a three-hour long cinematic epic, including an almost unprecedented thirty minute cold-open.
Front and centre is prolific actor Hidetoshi Nishijima as Kafuku. He is able to hold a stillness throughout, yet one which is awash with emotion and depth. Hamaguchi patiently allows the camera to linger on Nishijima’s face as his character works, grieves, and sits quietly in his beloved old Saab, being driven around Hiroshima. He is ably matched by Tôko Miura as Misaki, the somewhat mysterious woman whose driving skills were honed by an abusive mother. It would be glib to describe this on-screen relationship as having “chemistry”. What Nishijima and Miura produce is an intense connection, across a divide between two introverted characters.
Some of the most moving scenes in Drive My Car take place in the rehearsal room. This is no standard production of Uncle Vanya. Kafuku-san is known for his multi-lingual interpretations, where each member of the ensemble speaks their lines in their native language. For his Chekov in Hiroshima, he assembles a cast which includes Lee Yoon-a, whose native language is Korean Sign. This role is a gift to Korean actor Park Yoo-rim, who turns in a finely observed performance of quietly moving proportions. Because they are speaking differing languages, the cast are forced to observe each other more closely, both as characters, and as people. Meanwhile, out on the roads, Kafuku and Misaki are also observing each other: at first silently, then gradually adding words, and finding their shared darkness.
Hidetoshi Shinomiya’s cinematography brings Hamaguchi’s vision to life, offering long Japanese highways, the rather bleak landscape of Hokkaido in winter, and urban Tokyo and Hiroshima. In one particularly moving series of shots, the camera follows Kafuku and Misaki as they walk from the Peace Park, to the water’s edge.
Editor Azusa Yamazaki has worked with Hamaguchi to carve out three screen hours which manage to fly by, whilst maintaining a sense of slow-burn. There is so much in this film that it cries out to be watched more than once. Almost every scene is a mini-masterpiece in itself.
If you see one film this year, then this is it.
Drive My Car opens on February 10th. There will be a special preview screening on February 6th at PalaceNova Eastend. Click here for further details.
a cinematic masterpiece 5 stars
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