Japan’s Oscar representative Drive My Car was nominated for the 2022 Oscar Awards in four categories, including Best Picture. It seems possible that Drive My Car, which returned from the Cannes Film Festival and was selected as the Best Film by the New York Film Critics Association, repeats the historical success of the South Korean production Parasite last year.
Oscar nominee in 4 categories
One of the most talked about movies of the last period is the Japanese production Drive My Car. Its original name is Doraibu mai kā. It was named Best Film by the New York Film Critics Circle after winning the Best Screenplay Award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The film also received the Gotham Independent Film Festival Award for Best International Film. After all these major awards, it came to the fore with four nominations among the 2022 Oscar nominations announced yesterday. Fillm was nominated for Oscars for Best Picture, Best International Feature, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.
Drive My Car has been one of the Oscar favourites, ever since it entered the 2022 Oscar Awards Shortlist. Now, with four nominations, it seems to have come closer to this success. It seems possible that Japan will repeat the same success with Drive My Car in 2022, after South Korean production Parasite won an Oscar in both the Best Film and Best International Film categories in 2020.
Drive My Car, directed by Ryûsuke Hamaguchi and adapted from the short story by Haruki Murakami, is among the Best Director nominees and stars Hidetoshi Nishijima, Toko Miura and Masaki Okada.
The movie, which was released on January 28, is in the drama genre. So what does Drive My Car say? Yusuke Kafuku, an actor and director, has a happy life with his wife, Fukaku. But Yusuke’s happiness is cut short when his wife disappears. Two years later, Yusuke takes on the role of director of a theater festival, so he goes to Hiroshima. It is there that the young man meets Misaki, a young woman who is assigned to lead him, who does not talk much and perhaps knows what he is ignoring. Misaki is the driver that the festival has assigned to him. Yusuke Kafuku spends two hours every day on the road with Misaki, a very young female driver, although he does not want to at first.
Unexpectedly, Kafuku embarks on a series of journeys with his mysterious chauffeur, filled with loneliness, loss and grief, where secrets are revealed to each other. Kafuku and Misaki become friends. Misaki is keeping some sad secrets.
The director of the film, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, was born in 1978 in Japan. After graduating from the University of Tokyo in Aesthetic Art, she graduated from the Film and New Media Institute. His 2008 graduation film, Passion, was selected for the San Sebastian Film Festival. After graduating, he directed a documentary series and produced many fictional films. The director, who was awarded the Grand Jury Prize at the Berlin Film Festival with his 2021 production Wheel of Fortune, was awarded the Best Screenplay, Ecumenical Jury and FIPRESCI awards at the Cannes Film Festival with his 2021 production Drive My Car.
What’s the storyline?
Two years after his wife’s unexpected death, Yusuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima), a renowned stage actor and director, receives an offer to direct a production of Uncle Vanya at a theater festival in Hiroshima. There, he meets Misaki Watari (Toko Miura), a taciturn young woman assigned by the festival to chauffeur him in his beloved red Saab 900.
As the production’s premiere approaches, tensions mount amongst the cast and crew, not least between Yusuke and Koshi Takatsuki, a handsome TV star who shares an unwelcome connection to Yusuke’s late wife. Forced to confront painful truths raised from his past, Yusuke begins – with the help of his driver – to face the haunting mysteries his wife left behind.
Drive My Car (2021)
Directed by: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
Starring: Hidetoshi Nishijima, Tôko Miura, Reika Kirishima, Park Yu-rim, Jin Dae-yeon, Sonia Yuan, Ahn Hwitae, Perry Dizon, Satoko Abe, Hiroko Matsuda, Toshiaki Inomata, Takako Yamamura
Screenplay by: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Takamasa Oe
Production Design by: Hyeon-Seon Seo
Cinematography by: Hidetoshi Shinomiya
Film Editing by: Azusa Yamazaki
Costume Design by: Haruki Koketsu
Set Decoration by: Mami Kagamoto
Art Direction by: Kensaki Jo
Music by: Eiko Ishibashi
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Janus Films
Release Date: October 3, 2021 (New York Film Festival)
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