The dreamlike sequences of Scheherazade manifesting in Oto and telling the story of her childhood break-ins, sound similar to a part of Hong-Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-wai’s seminal work Chungking Express (1994). Scheherazade – a more Murakami-esque story of a female nurse who tells the protagonist stories after sex – is the engine that Drive My Car uses to enter and latch on to the viewers’ psyche like lampreys (vampire fish) – one of the most powerful symbols of the film. It was, like Oto and Murakami’s short story Scheherazade, an existence outside the film’s world – a presence of an ‘absent’ story we all witness. What came before wasn’t a part of Drive My Car at all. Hamaguchi and Oe are alive to this process and acknowledge it to the audience when the opening credits of the film flash at 40 minutes. But instead of stripping the story down, Hamaguchi and co-screenwriter Takamasa Oe combine (which explains its almost 3-hour runtime that drags a little) – like master alchemists – ingredients, rasas, that comprise an ethereal brew. Like the Russian author in Uncle Vanya, which is a reworking of his own longer play The Wood Demon, the Japanese filmmaker undertakes the task of re-telling, not his own, but Murakami’s work. In a way, Hamaguchi embodies Checkov in the creation and execution of the film. It’s within these elements that the ‘ transcendent’ moments of the film live and die. Not to mention significant directorial additions in fleshing out the stage-play narrative. Not Karan Johar, Ekta Kapoor but Korean culture factoryįaithful as it might be, Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car is not a film that simply adapts one Murakami short story. Although reluctant at first, Kafuku slowly forms a bond with Watari, leading to the revelation of some of their deepest, darkest emotions.Īlso Read: Indians have a new K in their lives. He is chauffeured around by Misaki Watari (Tôko Miura) in his own red 1987 Saab 900 Turbo. After the passing of his wife Oto (Reika Kirishima), Kafuku encounters his wife’s paramour and junior Kōji Takatsuki (Masaki Okada) in a casting call for a stage play of Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya at a Hiroshima theatre festival. The film essentially follows the life of theatre actor/director Yûsuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima). But the answer to what makes the truly film special, however, is something that’s not even a part of it. #Youtube monamour full movie movie#It’s a ‘European’ movie in Japanese, Mandarin, Korean Sign Language and English – a slow-burn drama that tugs at the heartstrings, but not too hard - a stick Japanese critics use to beat Murakami with. It’s easy to see why the film, now streaming on MUBI, racked up so many accolades. Perhaps Alejandro González Iñárritu’s 2014 Drama Birdman is a more accurate example. Had Ryusuke Hamaguchi not decided to adapt Haruki Murakami’s short story Drive My Car, and picked one of his novels instead – Hard Boiled Wonderland or A Wild Sheep Chase – it would have, perhaps, ended up looking like a David Lynch, Charlie Kaufman or an Ingmar Bergman film.
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