Drive My Car
Directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Written by Haruki Murakami, Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Starring Hidetoshi Nishijima, Toki Miura
Release Date August 18th, 2021
A three hour movie can be intimidating, even for a professional film critic, such as myself. A three hour long movie has to be very, very good to justify that length, especially if you are not watching it in a movie theater where you have fewer potential distractions. That makes the movie Drive My Car, from director Ryusuke Hamaguchi, all the more impressive. Drive My Caris a three hour movie about art, infidelity and personal trauma. It’s not flashy or bombastic, it’s deeply human and warm. These aren’t qualities one assumes of a three hour movie.
And yet, Drive My Car exists and never feels like a three hour movie. The story of an actor and his screenwriter wife, Drive My Car stars Hidetoshi Nishijima as Kafuku and Reika Kirishima as his wife, Oto. Our introduction to this husband and wife is unique and fascinating. In bed late at night, Oto begins to tell a story. She tells of a teenage girl obsessed with a teenage boy that she’s never spoken to before. The girl develops a habit of sneaking into the boy’s home and into his bedroom while no one is home. Each time she does this she takes an item and leaves an item of her own.
Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here.
