Drive My Car Movie Review — Sucharita Tyagi
Doston suno, dhyaan se suno.
If there ever was a movie that deserves black-out curtains, phone on silent vibration bhi off, snacks on the table, bladder empty, full attention for 3 hours.
It’s this one.
But be warned, preparation mein chook ho gayi agar, toh haath se nikal jaayegi film.
This is a movie review jahaan aaj we’re talking about the newest Oscar winner in the International Feature Film Category, ‘Drive My Car’.
This video is brought to you by MUBI, joh aapko pata hai sabse best, curated streaming service hain, with a brand new film every single day. Duniya bhar ki sabse chuninda nayi puraani, acclaimed filmein all you’ll get on this ONE platform. And kyunki aap merey channel ke subscriber ho, I'm making it easier for you with a promo code joh iss review ke end mein pata chalega, to get a 90 days MUBI subscription, FREE. Padhte raho.
Now, ‘Drive My Car’ is a 3-hour long movie and at the center of it are multilingual theatre artists, speaking Japanese, Mandarin, Korean sign language, among others. The opening credits don’t appear until 40 minutes, there is a lot of slow dialogue, plain walls, solid colors. Maaney the approach road to this film is challenging, but if you're to take my word, and I guess you do isliye yaha par ho, a red 1987 Saab 900 Turbo, will take you to a destination well worth your while.
Yusuke Kafuku is an actor and theatre director going through the motions of life after the untimely and sudden death of his wife, Oto, a screenwriter. While working on a play he befriends a whole new set of actors, and his new driver, a Japanese girl Misaki Watari. Stuck between wanting to remember his wife every day but also silently desperate to move on, Kafuku finds himself in a weird place where he needs to let go not just of resentment but also realize he cannot possibly control everything in his life.
Director Ryusuke Hamaguchi co-wrote this film with Takamasa Oe, adapting multiple Murakami short stories, from one single collection. The adapted screenplay is viscous, thick, like a stage play with many characters and acts, multiple arcs, conflicts, and convictions. Why do people choose to stay together in monogamy? How do you help a loved one who won't help themselves, why do people cheat, and also why it's crucial to travel and meet new people to get over your self-pity, to stop wallowing in your own sorrows thinking tumhaare saath hi sab galat hota hai.
Niklo toh sahi, dekho duniya ko.
Kafuku is in his late 40s and like most of us post 35, who kaafi insular ho gaya hai. Like his old car with unique quirks, he requires special handling, par ab pahiye sirf ghoom rahey hain, getting the job done from A to B. He’s unwilling to upgrade to a new car, he’s so tightly wound he unwilling to let someone drive his existing car, that’s just how frigid his losses have made him.
And you get it, right? The feeling ki kaash saari duniye ek ghante ke liye gaayab ho jaaye aur sirf main bachoon khulle aasman ke neechey baithi hui, thinking freely, talking to myself, no confrontations, no relationships to uphold. Kafuku is the very picture of a man wordlessly overwhelmed, and its so so relatable. Misaki ek moment mein kehti hai usko, “the important thing is to work, you must keep working”, which seems like sound logic coming from a 23-year-old, but when you're nearing 50 and you realize all you’ve done your whole life is work, you question how much of it was worth it.
Kafuku is in a strange situation, where the world around him is very glamorous, he’s surrounded by good looking actors and has no dearth of female attention himself, but fixated on his wife’s death, whose voice he listen to every day on a cassette tape, he wants to let go, but nothing is compelling him to, because he’s so successful professionally. Toh sab uss sey khush hai. Lucky hain woh log joh professional aur personal ke beech mein balance paa jaatey hain, mostly toh humein pata bhi nahi chalta taraazo kab ek taraf ludhak gayi.
At one point, he says to his driver, can you take me somewhere I can think in peace, which comes across as strange because nothing around him is visibly chaotic anyway. His hotel room faces a tranquil sea, his driver handles both him and his car with the most care, the entire theatre troupe is obedient to the extent of subservience, and yet, when faced with an important decision, all the calmness is immediately exposed as cacophony. This moment occurs right before what you might call a climax and it just knocked the wind out of me.
Successful adult, famous respected Kafuku, still has so much to learn. A weird kind of masochistic narcissism has stopped him from realizing others might be hurting too, and for a storyteller, he isn’t the most observant or empathetic. Oscar winner Hamaguchi keh rahe hain abhi toh Sucharita tum 33 ki ho, 50 ki hotey hotey aisi island jaisi matt ho jaana.
If you're looking for a little pause and perhaps some deliverance, watch Drive My Car, streaming aaj se, exclusively on MUBI in India, do watch.
Infact, main kya kehti hoon, free mien dekho. Go to MUBI.com/SucharitaTyagi, make an account and get the first 3 full months absolutely free.
Hamaguchi dekho, Ali Asgari dekho, Godard bhi hai aur Mira Nair bhi. Shonali Bose bhi milenge aur Agnes Varda bhi. Wong Kar Wai, Tarkovski, sab! Ek ek film, hand-picked, selected by cinema lovers, for cinema lovers, har roz kuch naya.
Aaj ke liye yahaan itna hi, miltey hain, ek-do din mein!
See ya!
