Drive My Car (2021)

"Drive My Car" is a long slow movie. So long and so slow that the intro credits come after more than half an hour into it. But it's a "slow burn". In different words, I think it's worth getting to the end of it.

The movie's based on a short writing of Haruki Murakami. Also, it's very entangled with "Uncle Vanya" by Checkhov. Unfortunately, my readings never intersected with the two, and that I think made me lose some of the hidden meanings in the action. This is centered on a period from the life of Kafuku, a theater actor from Japan in his 40s, who's losing his wife in the beginning of the movie as a victim of brain hemorrhage. Fast forward two years from the tragic event, we find Kafuku as a director somewhere in a delegation, tasked with staging the mentioned Checkhov play. The rules of the theater company require him to take a professional driver, a young woman. Initially he's displeased with this, on the ground of breaking his habit of rehearsing the play lines while driving, but he's finally compelled to accept. From here on, the movie starts more often to signal the "slow burn" I was mentioning, delivering between periods of calm some scenes that are either thought provoking or their construction is sufficiently strong to keep you hanging on. Probably one of the first such scenes is when the casting of the play takes place, where a former lover of the deceased wife shows up, a character to whom Kafuku surprisingly decides to give the title role. But let's leave the rest of the story for the viewing I'd say. There's not much of a twist in it after all - the whole charm of the movie's set in its construction with all the details, and a summary in this case would not make justice on giving you the same impression as the complete package.

There's a symbolism in this movie from which you can understand more or less, either as you want to perceive it or how the director intended :) What's important is that's there and keeps your mind busy, from the red SAAB with the wheel on the left driven a lot over Japanese roads, only to find it in the end on a Korean highway where the rule is "drives on the right", up to the interference between Checkhov's lines in repetitions and the moments in the lives of the people saying the words, when you're not sure anymore what's part of the play and what's real. In brief, the direction and the script are top notch, although probably the most obvious contribution to the impact of the movie comes from the actors' side, in particular from the lead.

It's hard to qualify "Drive My Car" as a niche movie, because it doesn't move much beyond the usual pattern of a drama. One thing that's certain though is that's not a movie for everyone. I doubt that 10 years ago, maybe even one year ago, I would've had the patience to digest this properly. I'm not sure I did it now, or better said I'm pretty sure there are more meanings in it than I was able to discern. It's a movie that requires some dose of life experience to understand the feelings of some characters, to be able to empathize with them, at least in part. And if that doesn't happen there are good chances the movie will be dreadfully boring for you. Besides that, it's a movie that has a lot of the typical Japanese calm in its action development - which again you might be able to get a taste of if you're in a period when you unconsciously need it. Then, I can say it's relaxing, and you'll feel that stronger as you watch it. Otherwise, I guess I would've slept through it. But I didn't, and the ending, more or less bitter, brings you one of the best acted scenes I've ever seen in a movie, a dialogue from "Uncle Vanya" partly said using the sign language, and which in essence could be summarized in a line from a previous scene - "we must keep on living".

Rating: 4 out of 5