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Drive My Car
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - Japan - TC Entertainment Review written by and copyright: James-Masaki Ryan (23rd February 2022). |
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The Film
 "Drive My Car" 「ドライブ・マイ・カー」 (2021) Yusuke Kafuku (played by Hidetoshi Nishijima), a former actor is hired by a theater group in Hiroshima to cast and direct a multilingual version of "Uncle Vanya". During his stay, the management insists that the crew cannot drive themselves, and must used hired drivers to travel for insurance and safety purposes. Kafuku is hesitant about anyone driving his beloved Saab as his time driving in it is his time of lone meditation, but gives it a try with driver Misaki Watari (played by Toko Miura), a 23 year old girl who is convinced that her easing driving skills would be no bother. It is during this time within his own car as now a passenger, as well as his times at the rehearsals with the international cast for the upcoming production that Kafuku is able to reflect more about his own life, the lives of others around him, as well as coming to terms with the unfortunate loss of his wife two years ago. Acclaimed author Haruki Murakami published the short story of "Drive My Car" in 2014 in the short story collection "Men Without Women". It seemed like an unusual move to expand the very short story into a three hour feature film, but the film adaptation of "Drive My Car", adapted and directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi has expanded the narrative further out, while also retaining the emotional core of the short with some interesting changes along the way. The biggest change that to be made was the car itself. It was written as a yellow Saab 900 convertible, but for filming purposes the biggest challenge was being able to hear the characters and a car that was not enclosed would be a nightmare unless everything was ADRed later in studio. The Saab 900 was retained, but instead being a standard car with a roof and the color changed to red. In the original short, Kafuku is involved in a DUI accident in which doctors find his eyesight failing due to glaucoma, therefore his driver's license is revoked and a driver is hired by his agency. In the film version, there is an accident sequence which leads to a doctor reporting about his glaucoma, though there was no drinking involved with the accident. (Although in the film it is never mentioned again for some reason.) While in the short story, Kafuku having to ride with a hired driver is immediately after the accident, in the film the events are more than two years apart. Kafuku being hired to direct "Uncle Vanya", the many characters he meets along the way, as well as the first forty minutes being dedicated to the events of two years prior are all completely new additions to the film version. It's very unusual to see a film's opening credits start from forty minutes into the feature, and in the case of "Drive My Car" that is essentially where it begins, two years after the death of his wife Oto (played by Reika Kirishima) from a sudden brain hemorrage. The opening of the film encompasses the couple's married life through the eyes of Kafuku, and is a complex one. He had an acclaimed career as a stage actor. She had an acclaimed job as a writer. Though their paths rarely crossed professionally, they were both integral in each others' works. She would record her voice on tape to play out the roles of other actors he would be interacting with for rehearsals in his car on his own time. He was integral in helping her with the writing of her stories, as it was during sex that her imagination for storytelling ran wild. Their relationship was not only about sex and creativity, but an emotionally complex one as well, as their young daughter's death from pneumonia took a depressing toll on their marriage for some time. In addition, he discovered that she was having extra-marital affairs, but rather than confronting her about it, he decided never to bring it up as the fear of losing her was unbearable to him. The opening scenes do establish the Kafuku's relationship well, though in some ways feels unnecessary at first viewing. The events of two years before Kafuku's job in Hiroshima feel like they are out of a different film altogether, and it does seem questionable as to why the beginning is attached. But the moments seen in the opening are reflected with Kafuku's emotions as he looks back on memories with his wife and the revelations that appear later, they do connect together and have a purpose in the long run. The addition of having Kafuku direct an interpretation of "Uncle Vanya" is an interesting choice as well. The play deals with a crumbling family, lies, betrayals, affairs, as well as reconciliation and love. With his knowledge of the play itself from playing the part of Vanya years ago, Kafuku has portrayed the complex and emotionally volatile character on stage but he himself is not at all like Vanya, as he is relaxed, calm, and does not express hard emotions outward. In comparison, Koji Takatsuki (played by Masaki Okada) who is cast as Vanya for the Hiroshima production is the polar opposite of Kafuku. A television actor who has gotten into scandalous trouble with aggressive behavior and sexual misconduct, he is a young man that is not afraid to let his emotions get in the way of his actions. This also causes some issues with his paranoia of thinking paparazzi are everywhere, secretly taking photos of him and looking for trouble. The other performers of the Hiroshima production are from all around Asia, from The Philippines, Taiwan, South Korea, and more with the actors speaking in their native tongue for their parts, while subtitles would be projected on a screen above the actors on stage for translation. Roy (played by Perry Dizon) speaks in Tagalog, Janice (played by Sonia Yuan) speaks in Mandarin, Jeong-eui (played by Ahn Hwite) speaks in Korean, etc. An interesting casting choice for Kafuku was Yoon-a (played by Park Yu-rim), who is mute and speaks in Korean sign language. During the rehearsals, which are conducted in English and Japanese to communicate with common languages showcases the story's international nature that emotions and feelings are universal, and not locked away or discarded by language barriers. The actors on stage begin to understand without language, by playing off the other performers' body language and cadence rather than mutually understanding every word that comes out of their mouths. It also is a reflection of "Drive My Car" as a film, where Kafuku is not saying much in how he really feels but rather with his body language and his reactions. He never raises a fist, he never cracks a big smile. Yet he might be the most expressive of all with what is seen and inferred, and Nishijima brings that to screen beautifully and subtly in the lead role. But none of this would work without the character of driver Misaki, a quiet young woman who shares much more in common with Kafuku than he initially realizes. Her background of coming from a household with an abusive mother, her scarred face, her journey from rural Hokkaido all the way to southwest Hiroshima more than 2,000km away after her mother's accidental death, and her seemingly directionless life except for her careful time behind the wheel - her one true talent as she defines it. Both have unspoken trauma that haunts them and without partners or friends to share their grief. It is during their time together in the car that a bond forms that is unlike many seen in films or stories. There have been films like "Driving Miss Daisy" or "Green Book" that have successfully shown the relationships of a hired driver and passenger from very different backgrounds, though "Drive My Car" does feel a little different. They two slowly open up about their lives to each other even though their lives would never have crossed any other way in their professions, but like a surrogate father and daughter they are able to bring something out of each other that even the closest of people could not realize, and done without effort, as Nishijima and Miura perform wonderfully together in their fairly quiet yet emotionally heavy scenes. Their very lengthy road trip to her hometown in Hokkaido is an emotionally beautiful and tearful one, which only is strong due to the performers and their excellent scenes together throughout the runtime. There are many other subplots that take part in the runtime as well. production producer Yoon-su (played by Jin Dae-yeon) revealing his secret about his wife and the difficulties they have faced, Koji's rambunctious offscreen antics such as a relationship with Janice off set and his fight with a paparazzi that ends up taking a serious toll, as well as the lengthy spoken only stories by Oto. Hamaguchi interestingly puts a lot of effort into what is not on screen, with the backstories of characters not revealed in flashbacks but in spoken manners. Audiences are not given visuals for Oto's unfinished story that is part of the first scene in the film, nor do we see the life of Misaki while she lived in Hokkaido. It essentially is a budgetary reason to not shoot those scenes, yet they are not missed at all, leaving pictures within the minds of the audience instead of having a director create some for them. All in all, Hamaguchi has expanded the existential and minimal story, yet was able to keep things minimal with mirroring elements for depth. "Drive My Car" is not a film that will please a lot people, as its three hour runtime is for people ready to think about love, life, death, jealousy, regret, and trauma in a not so straightforward sense. As entertaining as it is, it is one that will linger in the mind long after the credits roll. Pre-production started in 2019 with plans to shoot mostly in Busan, South Korea as the location where Kafuku would be working for the multilingual stage production. Unfortunately the COVID-19 pandemic issued a halt in international production, and the crew had to rewrite and find new locations and being careful with Coronavirus restrictions. Tokyo scenes were shot in early 2020, and Hiroshima was chosen as the location for most of the production in summer of 2020 with most of the main cast. There were some additional shoots in Niigata for the snow scenes in late 2020 as well as the coda scenes taking place in South Korea being shot in early 2021. Although surprisingly, these scenes were shot in Ibaraki, which is just northeast of Tokyo but dressing the location and license plates to match South Korea. Not necessarily a spoiler, but the final sequence does not hide the fact that the characters were at that point living in the pandemic world, as the supermarket had plastic dividers at registers and all customers and staff were wearing masks. It wasn't initially scripted that way, but the ending truly brings it to reality with a stamp of how the world is at the present moment. "Drive My Car" premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival where it won the Best Screenplay, Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, and the FIPRESCI Prize. Winning more than sixty prizes from around the world and still couting, the film was also nominated for four 2022 Academy Awards, and became the first time a Japanese film was nominated for Best Picture. But even with the high acclaim as well as a great amount of promotion for the film, the theatrical run in Japan has been incredibly small. Opening on August 20th, 2021 the film didn't crack the top ten and went unnoticed by mainstream audiences for some time. The film was not out of the public eye, as it continues to play in cinemas more than six months after its premiere, and still continuing as of this review and after the home video release. It was only after the announcement of the Oscar nominations that the film suddenly found a jump in ticket sales, where it expanded to 200 more cinemas and boosted its gross by 500% compared to the previous weekend. On its 26th weekend, it finally made it to eighth place in the weekly box office ranking, with a total of 333,170 tickets, with a total gross of ¥454,695,030 (almost US$4 million). The number is still incredibly small. In comparison, "Shoplifters" (2018) which won the Palme d'or at Cannes grossed more than US$40 million in Japan alone, though that film had a more well known director and much larger well known cast. Hamaguchi has been on the indie circuit for some time but his acclaimed past works, as well as his next work "Wheel of Fantasy and Fortune" (also released in 2021) are finding larger audiences both domestically and internationally. For all the acclaim it has received, "Drive My Car" is not a perfect film. There are some issues such as the runtime and the disconnect between the opening sequence and the rest of the film. But even with its minor issues, the film hits incredibly high on so many points, and is one that will play in audiences minds for quite some time. Note this is a region ALL Blu-ray + region 2 NTSC DVD set
Video
TC Entertainment presents the film in the 1.85:1 aspect ratio in 1080p AVC MPEG-4. Shot on an Arri Alexa Mini in 3.4K and edited in 2K, the digital production looks basically as perfect as can be on this Blu-ray release. Colors are crisp throughout in both daytime and nighttime shoots, with excellent detail in backgrounds and foregrounds, with driving sequences being highlights. The film might be three hours long, though there are no signs of compression or artifacts. Basically a flawless transfer. The film's runtime is 178:55. Note that when the Blu-ray is loaded the first screen that appears is a notice that the disc has an audio descriptive function. By pressing enter on the remote, the film would start with the audio descriptive track. If left alone, the film will start with the standard audio track with default subtitles. In order to set up language options or watch the extras, one must press the menu button after the film starts to gain access to the main menu. This is a complaint about a number of Japanese DVDs and Blu-rays that do not default to a main menu, but start the film automatically instead. It is a minor annoyance for people that want to change language options or watch extras instead. In addition the Blu-ray release is labeled as an "International Version", but note that the film is not at all a different cut, and using the label to discern that it has English subtitles. What might make things more annoying is that the disc doesn't have English menus, so accessing the English subtitles via menu will be difficult for people that cannot read Japanese. Instead, it's easier to cycle through the subtitle key via remote when the film starts.
Audio
Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Japanese Audio Descriptive DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo There are two audio tracks: the standard 5.1 track as well as a stereo audio descriptive track, both in a lossless format. The film is mostly in Japanese but there are portions in English, Korean, Mandarin, Indonesian, Tagalog, and other languages with the international cast. Dialogue is centered while the surrounding channels are used for music and effects. The dialogue is well balanced against the occasional ambient and jazz influenced music cues by composer Eiko Ishibashi as well as background effects such as echoes from the stage settings, the rain, and noise on the highways. The mix sounds good throughout, but won't give a major workout for the surround setup. There are optional English, Japanese (for non-Japanese portions), Japanese HoH subtitles in a white font. The English subtitles are only for the non-English portions and are free of spelling or grammar errors. Any time that non-Japanese dialogue is spoken, there are parenthesis surrounding the dialogue to signal that it is a foreign language.
Extras
The Collector's Edition has the film and some trailers on the Blu-ray while the rest of the extras are housed on the bonus DVD. DISC ONE (Blu-ray) Trailers (3:02) - 30 Second Trailer 1 - 30 Second Trailer 2 - 90 Second Trailer - 15 Second Spot A collection of original Japanese trailers to promote the film. in 1080p AVC MPEG-4, in 1.85:1, in Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 without subtitles DISC TWO (DVD) "Down the Road: The Making of Drive My Car" documentary (132:30) This lengthy documentary chronicles the behind the scenes of the film with B-roll footage as well as interviews with the cast and crew. From shooting cautiously during the COVID-19 pandemic, the last minute changes of shooting in South Korea having to be relocated to Hiroshima, as well as trouble with the old car are all included here. The cast speak very highly about Hamaguchi and the filming process, some in their native languages and at times in Japanese. While it is lengthy, it is not particularly in depth, as there is no information on the pre-production or adaptation process, nothing about post production either. This is more or less a production diary rather than a retrospective piece. in anamorphic 1.78:1, in Japanese and other languages Dolby Digital 2.0 with burned-in Japanese subtitles for some non-Japanese portions Opening Day Stage Greeting (20:28) Hamaguchi, Nishijima, and Okada appear in front of an opening day audience, in which they discuss shooting during the pandemic, the shooting of the multilingual scenes, the director's methods and more. In addition Hamaguchi shows off the screenplay award that the film received at Cannes a few months back. in anamorphic 1.78:1, in Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 without subtitles Conversation with Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Hidetoshi Nishijima (15:50) The director and the star have a conversation together in which they recall their first time meeting, their reactions to the story, memorable scenes of the film, and more. in anamorphic 1.78:1, in Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 without subtitles Booklet Included is a 12 page booklet with a short introduction, cast profiles, staff profiles, as well as information on the Saab 900 and the plays "En attendant Godat" by Samuel Beckett and "Uncle Vanya" by Anton Chekov, in Japanese. Three hours of extras, but it is quantity over quality on this release. The lengthy documentary is basically a production diary without much depth, there are no interviews with Murakami on the original story or what he thought of the adaptation, and little to nothing about the process of expanding the short story into a feature film. Hopefully a future release from Criterion in the US who have hinted a release will have better extras included. Other notable clips: American trailer "Kafuku" theme composed by Eiko Ishibashi featuring a lengthy driving scene outtake from the film. Post screening on stage interview with Ryusuke Hamaguchi at the Lincoln Center, with English interpretation. Cannes Film Festival Press Conference with English voiceover
Packaging
The discs are packaged in a standard clear keep case, housed in a slipbox along with the booklet. While the packaging says "International Version", this is not an alternate cut at all, but just an edition that includes English subtitles for the feature. A little misleading as one would think "international" would include a lot more language options, or even additional language options for the extras but that is not the case.
Overall
"Drive My Car" is a beautiful and contemplative piece that expands the original short story, with excellent performances, a wonderful soundtrack, and great direction. The Japanese Blu-ray from TC Entertainment has high quality with the transfer, though the extras in this collector's edition feel a bit shallow considering the depth of the film itself. Still comes as recommended.
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