"Drive My Car": having won many awards, this film is really different

"Drive My Car" is a menacing film by Japanese director Ryusuke Hamaguchi, adapted from a short story of the same name by Haruki Murakami. It has won many film festival and film critic awards. It has won the Best International Feature Film of the Oscar. It is exquisite and delicate, and deeply explores complex and diverse themes with a calm and introverted attitude. It is definitely a work worthy of three hours of serious appreciation.

Actor and director Kafuku is invited to Hiroshima to produce the stage play "Uncle Vanya". In order to comply with the regulations, the organizer insists on assigning a driver to pick him up. The driver is 23-year-old Misaki. One of the performers involved in the stage play is the young actor Koji Takatsuki who has an affair with Kafuku's deceased wife.

This is a general introduction to the relationship between the characters. It seems simple, but the director allows the main characters to reveal their past layer by layer through dialogues in different scenes. The truth that the characters have never admitted to others or even themselves in the past gradually comes out. There are many elements in the script, such as accident, death, affair, violence, guilt, etc., but the director uses a delicate and realistic way to present the story. There is a story behind each story, the characters are more and more vivid. The most wonderful "play" is hidden in the dialogues, in the subtle expressions and eyes of the actors, and in the angles and switching of the camera len.

Kafuku's deceased wife is a screenwriter. When they have sex, his wife will always have a lot of thoughts. She says them out unconsciously, but then she forgets afterwards. Kafuku will tell her after sex. Kafuku has a red car in which he used to use his wife's recordings to rehearse his play.

However, the superficial harmony does not mean that they are in peace. They have used to have a daughter who has died young. They often talk to each other, but do not express their inner thoughts. After Kafuku finds out about his wife's affair when he gets home early, he leaves secretly. Later, his wife learns that he has a car accident and comes to the hospital to see him. She doesn't ask him why he doesn't go on a business trip as planned. Later, during a sex, a physical movement of Kafuku seems to covertly tell her "I have already known", but he still doesn't say it; later, on the morning of his wife's unexpected death, she says to him, "I have something to tell you tonight", which also implies something suspense. Maybe his wife is finally ready to admit something. "Confession" is a very important theme in the full version of the story she tells when she is at the orgasm. Their relationship is broken down at this moment, and they can no longer communicate with each other. His wife's story becomes an eternal secret.

The play "Uncle Vanya" in "Drive My Car" is a famous play by the Russian playwright Chekhov. Its plot corresponds to the mood of the characters in the film. The theme is that when the middle-aged protagonist realizes that he has wasted his days, and he doesn't know how to face the future. After his wife has died, Kafuku is reluctant to play the protagonist of "Uncle Vanya". This is understandable, but he asks Koji Takatsuki, who has an affair with his wife, to play the role. His motive is more complicated. Maybe he knows Koji is not suitable for this role at all, so he wants to make a fool of him, or maybe he wants to get to know his deceased wife by approaching Koji.

Kafuku always feels that there is a strange and dark place in his wife's heart that he doesn't understand at all; at the same time, the reason for his wife's death also has something to do with him, so he has a deep sense of guilt.

There is an important scene that happens in the car. It is a conversation when Koji hitches a ride with Kafuku. At this time, the camera is facing the actors' face, and the actors seem to be talking to the audiences. They know each other's identities clearly, so even though the dialogue is very obscure, but honest and clear, and makes sense.

Unexpectedly, Kafuku's heart knot is finally resolved by the driver Misaki. The most wonderful relationship development and several dialogues in "Drive My Car" all happen between Kafuku and Misaki. The process is not smooth when they meet at the beginning. Kafuku originally hopes to use the commute time of driving alone to listen to the recordings left by his wife to rehearse. He doesn't expect to have another stranger to drive his car, and he will inevitably feel uncomfortable.

However, they establish a kind of tacit understanding gradually. The car becomes their safe space, in which they share life experiences together. Both of them like the peace that driving brings about. The pain of "loss" is also buried in their hearts. One night when they are in the car, they hold cigarettes and stick them out of the skylight. The two flames seem to accompany each other, but maintain a respectful distance. This is the most comfortable and warm friendship. After getting along for a little longer time, they persuade each other to accept the bad things that have happened in the past, stop blaming themselves and learn to heal themselves.

People often have an obsession with the secrets of the deceased. If they don't find out the truth when the person is alive, they have to keep guessing. This obsession traps the living like a black hole, but people must learn to accept it after all. No matter how close the relationship between the couple is, they still can't fully understand each other. Kafuku also has to face the reality that although his wife has an affair, she still loves him deeply.

Another important plot of "Drive My Car" is the rehearsal process of "Uncle Vanya". Kafuku has a special way of directing. He uses East Asian actors with different languages in the casting. The actors perform in their own language in the play, and finally achieve good results.

Perhaps, due to the language barrier, the actors will have a more acute observation of other people's body language and emotions. In the end, they are not restricted by the words, but are really driven by the script and give the most honest response.

As Kafuku says: "Chekhov's sentences are dangerous". As an actor, when you enter the role and say the lines, you have to face the emotions corresponding to those words, and your true self is dragged out. You can't avoid it. Performers use each "character" as a medium to express their true feelings. Art and life are no longer the relationship of imitation, but closely linked to each other. This is clearly revealed in the ending of "Drive My Car".

Driving a car is often a metaphor for "power of control". When Kafuku is forced to hand over the steering wheel to someone else, his original self-control and repression cannot continue, so he has to "let go". This is the antidote for "how to live". The protagonist and the driver, and the actors and Chekhov's script describe how people express themselves and let go of the past in the stories of others. What "Drive My Car" leaves in the mind of the audiences is not only brought about by the plots and roles, but also by us outside the film to sense the truest self in our mind.