I appreciate your take on the movie. I just saw it yesterday at a theater in Denver, so I'm still in a process of digesting the contents. Funny surprise was that because I'm Japanese I had thought that I was going to get a free ride in terms of language requirement. But I ended up with reading the subtitle text all the way to the end in order not to miss or to understand the complexity of psychological web woven into the cinema. Also it was partially because of an experimental multi-lingual approach introduced in the story's theatrical work (drama within the drama) as a metaphorical means and the mirror like function for the thematically issues of our communication straggle to made me read the subtitle. Since I'm an artist myself, the behind the scene creative process such as that was familiar to me at the same time refreshing to see it in my face. I loved the intentional stoic emotionless text reading practice forced onto the auditioned actors chosen for the production of Chekhov work. That had a metaphorical impact on the theme, I thought.
My favourite film in a long time. There's absolutely nothing in the text, not one thread, that I do not feel in my bones, nothing that does not move me profoundly. It had me on the edge of my seat by the hour mark and floored by the third, and i started the film pretty comfortable in bed.
Wow, what a film! And wow, what an analysis! I saw the film last night (march 23, European premiere) and it's still 'ringing around in my mind'. Thinking about: "What did I see, what does this all mean, how it touches and moves me." Girl, you hit it spot on. We definitely saw the same film. I totaly agree with you. One more thing, the the car it self. I'm not a car-person, but what a beautyful car that Saab 900 turbo is. It makes me wanna cry when I see i driving by! And this car is soo connected and in the film and plays such an important role as well. I wouldn't call it another 'character' but I try to find a 'term' that defines it's 'role'. I came up with a "cradle", because (as a vehicle) it cradles around the characters and their stories and it protects them, binds and hold them. But if anyone finds a better word that hold a better description, I like to hear it. Yes, this film is complex, deep and it makes you work hard watching it, but it's worth it. Just realize it's 3 hours long and set your mind for it.
@Michael Snoeren: This film, for me, is less of a memory, & more of an imprint - in my mind, I keep going back to see that it’s still there...& I feel that I will go on learning from it! What a wonder! 🙏🏻💔🙏🏽
To answer your question: I think it is the right length for the reasons you gave (as well as several commentators). I loved it. I listen to audiobooks, so a full story in just 3 hours is a real bargain (this movie is novelistic). The ending is what makes it whole, which is also its strength.
Your review is everything I couldn’t verbalize. Obviously getting best pic and best directing nominations I knew this movie would be good. But goodness… it took until the dinner scene with the Korean couple for the magic to finally take me over. And then that 30 min prologue with Oto …that was so boring ..is actually so important. The last scene in the play with that actress saying we will struggle and suffer… but we will rest. We will rest. I was fully sobbing. And then the actual ending of the film. Perfection. My fav film in the last 5 years. The “Sachi” story broke my heart. That actresses delivery was so on point.
I have been watching your videos lately, and this is the one that made me subscribe. It’s an excellent review of a deeply beautiful, human, profound film. I have not watched this since my first viewing back in March, but I believe I will be rewatching it soon. Also (I know Oscars don’t matter, time does with films), this was my personal pick for Best Picture this year. I do like CODA to a certain degree and I do get why it won (feel good movie that a lot of people like in dark times), but this to me is the best of that category from this year.
I did like the meta nature of it as it once again asserts the notion that life and fiction are often quite similar. Not super deep I know but it’s what I love about films like F for Fake, Day for Night, Contempt, Drive My Car.
Was curious about your thoughts of this. I found this a very hypnotic and moving film. Definitely slow at parts but thankfully it was a beautifully shot and brilliantly acted. A really unique viewing experience
The redundancy of the film is like the actors preparing for the play. Why are we reading the text over and over again they ask each other. They focus so much on the text that they drop their guard and whatever emotion the text calls forth slips out of them without them noticing.
I am visiting Los Angeles in a couple of months, and I was looking on the internet for what I might want to do when I'm out there.I couldn't believe it, but throughout the whole month of June, The Pasadena Playhouse is going to be putting on"Uncle Vanya". I have never seen it before, but I am excited to have the chance to see it in its entirety. I bet one of the main factors they are doing it now, is because of the success of" Drive My Car".
your comment lacks the fundamental foundations of common parlance which we would all assume quintessential to an unbiased and wholly subjective opinion.
I really liked the first 40 minutes of the movie, getting a peak into this strange creative process of the wife and also the unusual dynamic of their relationship. The actress who played the main character's wife gave the best performance of the film I feel. And much later the scene in the car, the conversation between the protagonist and the younger actor was very moving and I loved the metaphor of the story; it was so heartbreaking. But I think the tragedy in the main character's life was enough; I don't think the film needed the almost unbelievable tragedies of the driver and the younger actor. This is something I've noticed in other asian films as well, these unbelievable tragedies the characters experience that are so tragic they almost border on the absurd, or the comical. His wife having a cerebral hemorrhage before they could have their talk, that was tragic enough. We didn't need the driver's mom (who also had dissociative identity disorder?) being killed in a landslide and the younger actor going to prison for murdering an amateur paparazzi. It was too much. All that stuff just really took me out of the movie. What was next? We learn that the mute girl's whole family died in a bus accident? This is what I mean that the tragedy is so unbelievable it starts to border on the absurd, almost comical. But I did enjoy the meditative quality of the film as you said, and the scene you mentioned when they're holding up the cigarettes through the sunroof also stuck out to me. Such a beautiful shot! Especially with the halo from one of the streetlights sitting perfectly between their hands, like the moon or a setting sun. That shot just came together perfectly. I do wish we got more of Ota's stories and metaphors and less of the driver and the younger actor's stories.
I kind of agree with everything you said. At first I thought the movie was not going anywhere or that it was taking too long to get to it, but it kept unfolding all the way through pretty nicely. I loved the “bad guy” in the film as well. It was a very good performance that gave the movie a lot of personality and honestly I wish he would’ve been a bigger part of the ending. In any case, I agree with you it’s worth it for the people that like slow movies, but I could see some people finding too long and slow to stay on board the entire time
@Juan Ramirez - I expect to hear much more about Masaki Okada ( the one who Jane Campion calls ‘BAD BOY!’) His character is so ambiguous, & so androgynous - I felt in that scene ‘in the back of the car’ his sorrow felt so real...powerful & low-key at the same time, the film really kicks off for me - ‘if we want to understand others, we need to look at ourselves’ Right? Right! From Brighton 🌈 UK, take care & be well y’all! 🙏🏻🌹🙏🏽
@@davidsheriff9274: Thank you David! It is a bit confusing... The name of the lovely chauffeuse is indeed Misaki; I had to look twice to see that the actor who owned the ‘conversation in the back of the car’ - such deep emotion & no histrionics - is named Masaki Okada, very similar, yes? Trawling through UA-cam (how could I resist?) I discover that he was a Teen Idol in Japan, which makes the casting, to my mind, inspiring! I also believe that Masaki Okada is going places... Thank you for your kind attention: take care & be well! 🙏🏽🌹🙏🏻
@@Cristobels-Green-Boots Oh, you are correct, that was my mistake, I thought you were talking about the names of the characters,but you were talking about the names of the actors. You're right, the young man that played the character of Takatsuki, is indeed named "Masaki Okada, my bad. He is a very fine actor. One thing about his character that I haven't heard anybody mention, it's not a big deal, but I thought it was kind of funny. Do you remember when they were all outside and that guy took a picture of him, and Takatsuki followed him and came back about thirty seconds later, and we find out the guy later died from his injuries? Takatsuki was a very scrawny guy, how was he able to beat that guy so badly in just a few seconds? He must have bashed the guy's head in from behind with a big rock and managed to not get one drop of blood on himself. People have referred to his character as "hot headed" that's a heck of an understatement, "psychopath" is a little more accurate.
If you read Haruki Murakami's work he leaves space and distance sometimes for us to fill in our own suggestions as to where the story is or ends. Kudos to the director for taking the source material and expanding on it, giving it more flesh and bone. I recently saw The Batman and it overstayed its film time. This was three hours long and I was so taken by this movie I felt it could've gone on longer. The theme of grief and trying to find commonality with others is part of the human condition. I felt both of them felt a sense of guilt and regret which left them in perpetual standstill. This was a terrific film in a year that has already given us Red Rocket, The Worse Person in the World etc.
For me it didn’t feel longer than a 2 hr movie…it was definitely an emotional experience for me because I have had similar experiences to the main character, and I feel the same as you do about the final scene of the play! Thank for sharing your review!
It's 2024 and I just watched the movie, it was so cool watching the way it unfurls like a lotus. There were times it felt that it was meandering a bit, then when you realize how everything is weaving in and out of each other and all the pieces come together it's such a cathartic conclusion
I always thought about why I'm not into slow movies which are deemed amazing, such as Roma, such as Boyhood. And here comes Drive My Car, and I love it and ur analysis is amazing and like everything you said is so weirdly accurate to what i feel about the movie, even the part where u said that u decided to watch the movie again, which i did also and it rarely happens to me that i want to watch something again. I'll be following u!
I appreciate your review as someone who has chewed on this film for a week or so, having loved it from the first taste. Your thoughts about the film’s longueurs felt insightful. The way long periods of ordinary life and its griefs or whatever don’t progress a plot but when they mature into an expanded understanding and empathy one feels a sense of fulfillment and gratitude. You articulated a way film and other narratives can help us see the narratives of our personal lives lead to meaning. I was reminded of my experiences reading Joyce’s Ulysses and Finnegans Wake where I sometimes thought he could’ve cut certain bits with a good editor but after a day or two I thought my love of the experience of clarity afterwards would not have come without the slower times. Slow film is as good as slow food!
I thought film was brilliant its definitely a slow burner. When the film finished i was left in awe of what i experienced. It felt like was watching the life of somebody in real even though i was aware it was film. I dont sounds really dumb. But whole idea of grief and how we deal it and we convince ourselves that we're ok. Because we've managed to go on with life even certain amount of years pass from certain persons death. I can definitely relate and this film expressed brilliantly how i feel sometimes about someone's passing and how even the littles noments in life like that car scene where they light a cigarette but dont smoke in car (because of the main character rules) instead put their hands through the sunroof little moments like that in life are beatiful. I guess last thing i loved was when they were in house of the mute lady having dinner and when she spoke in sign language instead what she is saying translated on screen with subtitles we instead get the translation from her husband. I dont why i thought that was a nice touch. Lol
I liked it a lot during my first watch and I didn't really feel the length of the movie. I will say I didn't expect it to be so emotionally affecting despite the going ons in the film. During the final act, when the two characters are in the car speaking of those they lost, I struggled to hold back tears throughout the rest of it. I found it really beautiful and wonder if I would have been half as affected had the running time been shorter.
I'm really interested in hearing your thoughts on 'Don't Look Up' since it seems like the kind of film you would find insufferable. And it's also baffling that it's nominated for editing.
Ugh god fuck that movie. In/Frame/Out and The Costume Codex both did great videos about how that film fails both as satire and also as a movie on the whole, if you're seeking some well articulated validation for hating a surprisingly well regarded piece of shit.
would you ever consider doing a video on mma? As a huge mma fan I would love to hear your thoughts on why you got into the sport, what you like about it, or some of your favorite fights/fighters
Amusing quote from the director, c/o Wikipedia: (On the ending of Drive My Car) "Once I talked with a big fan of Drive My Car who said that it really would have been perfect without that ending. (Laugh) Well, I think maybe the reason I ended that way is to make it a bit imperfect."
I'm watching this now and waiting for you to mention that it's based on a Haruki Murakami short story...If you're familiar with his work the connection seems clear. Burning was amazing too, similar in a lot of ways!
It's actually based on two short stories from "Men without Women", The story about the highschool girl cones from a different story in the book called "Scheherazade". I had never heard of Haruki Murakami before, I loved the movie so much I bought the book and I absolutely hated it. The fact that the director was able to make such a beautiful epic masterpiece from a couple of nothing stories goes to his genius.
@@davidsheriff9274 haha! Wow. His novels are great. I recommend Sputnik Sweetheart, Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World, Colorless Tsukuru and his Years of Pilgrimage, Dance Dance Dance. So many great books!
@@christopherpaul7588There are so many fans of Haruki Murakami that are fanatical about him. Most people recommend "Norwegian Wood" "Kafka on the Shore" "Wild Sheep Chase" and "The Wind-up Bird Chronicles", the ones you mentioned are not as well known. I have read excerpts and reviews of them and read all of"Men without Women", they all seem to be kind of the same. Loneliness,self deception, alienation, jazz, pointless unresolved mysteries and magical Freudian symbolism. Maybe I just don't like his style of writing. Someone told me that if I want to read some"Murakami",I should try Ryu Murakami,it might be more up my alley. Have you read anything by him? "In the Miso Soup"Piercings" Coin Locked Babies",he also wrote the book "Audition" that the movie is based on. I ordered"Piercings" so I'll see if I like it. If it has a scene where someone is making pasta while listening to Miles Davis as a magical cat is walking around, I will officially be done with all Murakamis.😁
@@davidsheriff9274 Those are as well known. Great books. I also loved the ones you mentioned accept Norwegian Wood. I think it's overrated. Not terrible, it's just not his best book. There is also a movie based on Norwegian Wood, and my favorite film based on Murakami is Burning. It's amazing. I love all of those things you mentioned, the archetypes. I love it when a writer or filmmaker has an obsession that they return to every time. My favorite writer, Roberto Bolaño, has a few of those, as well as my favorite filmmaker, David Lynch, which are obvious if you've ever seen any of his movies. We learn a little something extra about Murakami through his love of pasta, whisky, and cats, and his obsession with missing women and these archetypes tie all his work together somehow.
@@christopherpaul7588 I didn't know Murakami wrote the story of"Burning", that was a fantastic movie. I don't know why everyone was making such a big deal of"Parasite", I didn't like that movie at all. I have never heard of Roberto Bolano, I was reading a little about him,he sounds interesting, which one of his books do you recommend? What do you think of his book of short stories? I agree that some of the best writers use similar themes in their books, but I think Murakami is just not for me. I can understand why you like David Lynch ,he also uses a lot of dreamy symbolism. I liked" The Elephant Man" and "Blue Velvet" but I am not really a fan of his other work, I am still trying to figure out what the heck"Lost Highway" was about.
Amazing review. Everything depends on your personal taste for movies. I’ve been seeing films that belong to this line of aesthetics, long and contemplative, so I’ve sort of trained my taste for this type of movies. With Drive my car, I felt like I was eating a delicious plate and deconstructing the new flavors as they where been presented. Everything it’s given at the right moment. One extra aspect I would like to remark, it’s that the main character silent, is filled with information and even dialog, when he plays the tapes of the Uncle Vania’s recording. A Mehta aspect having 4 layers of creative process implied (1)Haruki Murakami the writer of the short story, (2)Ryûsuke Hamagucgi the director of the movie, (3) the main character being an artist, and the dramaturg of the play inside the movie (4)Anton Chekhov. Artist find their way to speak for, through and to the human soul. Absolutely enjoyed every second of it.
I love your reviews and this one was not an exception. We watched it during Oscar week at our cinema not even knowing about its length and only reading the ridiculously misleading description from the movie listing. At 40 minutes -- I think it was more like 40 minutes rather than the 30 minutes you mention, but I may be wrong -- and the opening credits finally come up was when the realization hits that this was going to be something really special. At the point we have a brief scene from Waiting for Godot it is also obvious. I too hate flashbacks and appreciate you illuminate the directors choice to eschew those. This was a movie with full rich female characters, a movie that respected those female characters in ways that Power of the Dog and Don't Look Up didn't. (Licorice Pizza had a great female in Alana, so the picks were not all poor in that regard.) I was surprised at my own reaction to the moving sign language acting. There is much that is explained, and enough that isn't. I felt the movie had enough plot for 4 or 5 movies and that was fine with me. We didn't see her telling the stories to her lovers in the opening, so that was a later reveal -- the opening served to leave enough ambiguity and see the wife as a more complete character than flashbacks would have allowed. Plus it allowed her orgasms, and the the sexiest parts to not visually punctuate the later resolution, plus be a memory we dealt with along with the two males. That elongation also served that purpose. I remarked to my wife on the plainness of his driver, and of course additionally that she was his deceased daughters age, to the extent that the movie never played with us to create an expectation that sexual tension would exist in that quarter. Lastly, I did not find the Social Justice aspects to be heavy-handed and I am a conservative who is sensitive to any sign of heavy-handedness. Perhaps you meant more heavy-handed in the sense of making obvious statements. That is true, but I appreciated that some points were made obvious. One of my other aphorisms about the movie was that is was mature movie with a conscious but that it was not woke.
Hi Maggie. I am your new subscriber and I love your videos so much, especially 'A Message From the heart'' i love that video so much, I'm so related with that video. And I love your honesty, you are a brave woman. I love you so much Maggie, Be safe and Be happy ❤❤❤
I put this movie in the same category as Paterson and The Assistant. Movies that flirt with but never fall into cliche or trope, and therefore offer a new experience.
I think one of the themes in this film is how events that play out in life later become stories which we then interpret as reality. For this reason, I think leaving out the big 35 min intro wouldn’t have been as good. You get to actually see what happens to Kafuka and then see later how he interprets the story. And then later how he revised the story when he realizes his mistakes. It’s such a wonderful film about the power of storytelling.
I caught this on HBO max recently and wow . I loved it for the longest time my favorite movie from 2021 was licorice pizza I think this just might top it , I will have to see it again when I have the time but wow . I watched it with my partner she fell asleep I was utterly entranced but I get it , it’s certainly isn’t for everyone.
Great movie and review. What I got from it was the way it contrasts fact and fiction. The main character and his wife work in the arts, theater and TV but are soon faced with very real problems. The beginning where she is telling him a story about a girl in the house of a boy she has a crush on, we are not sure at first if it is real or not. Then later we see the rehearsals of a play and the young actor the director has a history with. So I really liked that aspect of it. It also makes me curious to read "Uncle Vanya" and "Waiting For Godot".
Thank you for speaking about this film that I know little about outside of the buzz it has been receiving. My dear friend and fellow UA-cam movie discussion master, Daisuke Beppu, had shared a photo of his blu-ray of this film on his Instagram and I was very intrigued. I appreciate your spoiler free discussion here that has definitely convinced me I will love this film when I get a chance to see it.
It's so nice to find another Daisuke Beppu fan! His reviews are probably the reason I started expanding my tastes in film and I still watch his videos all these years later. I really wish more UA-camrs would have the confidence (and articulation) to discuss a film without the constant cutting and without limiting themselves to 5 minute reviews - Daisuke Beppu and deepfocuslens are one of the few film review channels worth watching. Hope you enjoy the film!
The movie is based on all the short stories from Murikamis “men without women” collection of short stories. I think that’s why the story feels disconnected sometimes. It’s actually multiple stories combined into one.
I started watching this on HBO MAX but about 40 minutes in, the subtitles got really out of sync. Like, 3 minutes off! Nothing I’ve tried fixed it but hopefully I’ll get to see it all soon.
For me, it is the best movie of the year. I believe director made the movie which he wanted to make and I love that. I watched it 2 times. Love the moment of character who couldn't speak and character of driver, love that character as well And finally the movie was beautiful looking, great performance as well. Btw love your videos the way you are just honest about what you think of the movies. :)
I liked this film a lot but I don't know that I loved it. I absolutely adored the structure in how the first "act" of the film is sort of a misdirection, which then influences the rest of the film. I loved the wife's beautifully hypnotic voice and how that voice "haunts" the rest of the film like a ghost story. I loved the conversations in the first two hours and how language itself is sort of stretched and tested. But in the last hour I felt like something was off. After a certain point, the characters all sound like the screenwriter. They intellectualize themselves in the same academic way when the conversations before then felt natural and realistically subtle. The different pieces that were set up (the glaucoma, the play, the use of multiple languages, the lead actor in the play and his relationship with the director) don't really come together. Perhaps if I was intimately familiar with Uncle Vanya and had an understanding of the acting/directing experience then all of these themes might tie together better? Maybe it's a consequence of adapting and condensing several Murakami stories into one 3 hour film (the director's film Happy Hour is 5 hours long; maybe this film needed to be). Or maybe it's by design that these elements are just there to be experienced, but if so then why does it all feel so purposeful? I think, ironically, something is lost in translation And crucially, I think the emotional distance actually hurts it in the long run. I was fascinated and immersed, but I was never moved. That said, I would easily watch it again, as well as anything else from Hamaguchi.
I was surprised when you mentioned the fact that the movie is about three hours long, definitely didn't felt like three hours to me when I was watching it the first time.
happened to have decided to watch this on a saturday morning and into the afternoon. i could not agree more! occasionally frustrating and heavy-handed but just goddamn beautiful. i wouldn't change a thing about it. as you say, experiencing the unfurling of the characters' stories and the poignant, transcendent resolution make every second worth it.
so glad I saw this in theaters, where the 3 hours passed without any issue for me whereas I felt every bit of THE BATMAN in a bad way It would’ve been hard to focus on the film at home with all the distractions, but it deserves its runtime
@13:53: "...it's all performance; life is a play." That certainly goes with the Indian and Hindu worldviews, where the whole world is an "act" or "dance" rather than a "creation". So we are all actors playing or parts in a movie without any permanent or specific director.
Didn't Shakespeare say "All the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players"? We all play such different roles throughout our short time here.. Different characters throughout the years and different characters to the people in our lives. Do you remember that hit song by the band"The Verve"? One of the lines is" it's a bittersweet symphony that's life, cause I'm a million different people from one day to the next". I think that's one of the things that the movie addresses, we have to learn to accept ourselves and others for being complicated and irrational beings that are imperfect, and we need to cut ourselves and others a little slack. There is an old expression "God didn't want any competition, so he made people".
So I did a quick scan of your reviews, and did not see "A Serbian Film" the story is horrible, but the technical aspects of film making are very good, though it does require a strong stomach. Also I did not see "City of Lost Children" (which is currently on amazon prime) if you want to see Ron Perlman acting in French.
The meaning of this movie is too deep in my mind. Especially I am knowledgeable in all 3 languages and their life styles: Japanese, Korean and Chinese. The reason I watch it was the attraction of the 1987 Saab Turbo as I really want one of these prior to seeing the movie.
It's interesting to hear from people who had no problem sitting the exact same amount of time watching "The Batman," but who take issue with "Drive My Car" being "too long." Perhaps maybe the meatier "The Batman" has the gruff action and ticking-clock momentum that oftentimes "feels" like it helps move things along, but I would argue the meditative quality of "Drive My Car," and particularly Ryusuke Hamaguchi's handling of it, is just as meaty and intentional. It's oftentimes cerebral in its portrayal of events, which make seemingly dull or lifeless events feel mandatory and necessary for completing its intended arc. Take any one scene out and you might actually lose value. It takes sweet time to be painterly and poetic, yes, but it's all confidently stroked and spoken, crafting an intimate and relatable portrait much, as you suggest, is similar to the masterpieces of Ozu. Can you tell I loved this film?
Yeah much has been made about the length of Drive My Car and I don't understand. I watched The Godfather, Drive My Car, and The Batman in a row (on separate days; I'm not that crazy...). All three hour films, all perfectly paced, all of which flew by, and all of which I easily could have watched for at least another hour. The first section of Drive My Car almost feels like it's own short film that then leads into a 2 and a half hour experience that's separate, and when it was over I actually did wish it was another hour longer just because there were certain aspects I wanted to see more of
There is a difference between the duration of a film and the perceived duration. Drive My Car was not my favorite film, I have to admit, and it felt like 4 hours to me, while The Godfather felt like one and a half hours at most...and you mention a "meditative state" but I did not get into it at all so I was very conscious of the time, and I can imagine that watching The Batman (I haven't seen it yet) is a totally different experience and would probably feel much shorter to me. So it is very subjective...
Discord loves "Drive My Car". I know nothing about the film other than the fact that people on Discord won't shut up about it. So with all due respect, I'll be waiting for the hype to die down. Outside of this specific circumstance, I'm always up for a more meditative work (many of which Maggie has discussed before on here).
I think some of the spaces between scenes were long as well as some of the monologues. I also think the "prologue" could have been a little shorter but I still think it was very good and I liked it very much.
The lady with the sign language and the long dialog with the young antagonist in the car were the best parts for me. I did not feel much impact on the resolution at the end. The protagonist and the driver lady has not really much in common. I did not get that parallel feeling from them.
I think they both similarly experience regret, lost and empty. They both slowly open up to each other try to cope with it and move on. I think that's what happened in Hokkaido.
@@fufu5068 I get the protagonists regret, lost and emptiness, I just could not connected well with the driver lady's back story with her mother. She was abused by her mother for years, yet her only friend was her mother's split personality. That sounds extremely surreal to me. You get alienated from your parents, you go and find friends. But maybe it is something with living in Japan. Many people are traditionally introvert and isolated from public as far as I know.
@@hadeseus but ironically,if you have parents that are abusive either physically or emotionally,or just unloving, making friends and getting close to other people is more difficult because you are so petrified of getting hurt, you were never taught how to deal with emotional pain. Misaki's only friend was the childlike persona that came out in her mother after the abuse. Misaki had no one else. She knew that if she let her mother die,her abuser would die but so would her only friend. She made her decision at that moment and she had to live with it.
It is basically a NEW TYPE of movie. More like a LIVE footage of unedited superrr looooooong takes, its for meditation. Like imagine if u basically take a dash cam but with a nicer 1080 lens and just meditate with driving footage.. it is a movie that is suppperrrrrrr experimental and basically capitalising on the "I'm different fact and throw in a deaf person (since being deaf seems to be this years Oscar flavor *coda* ) but I promise u DO NOT pay money for this u will feel robbed. I watched the movie at 2.50x speed and it was still SLOW!! IMAGINNNEEE 2.5X and it was releee slow lol . I honestly downloaded it for free n now use it as background to go to sleep its perfect for that
I was kinda ambivalent during the first hour, then the last 2 hours I was completely sold. I was just in love with these characters and their natural conversations. It was just so comforting to listen to the 2 main characters talk for hours. Their relationship was wonderfully plutonic. Reminded me a lot of Up, two unlikely friends with issues who find companionship with each other
Same. The movie is obviously best pic nominated. So I just kept waiting for this best pic moment to happen and for me it was the scene with the Korean couple. From there on it was absolutely magical and totally my fav movie in the last 5 years. The last scene with the play had me sobbing 😭 when she repeats “we will rest”.
I don't get it , what message they are giving through this movie?? Is it okay to love one person and sleep with other? Finally hero blames himself for not listening to his wife. But is it only him who made mistake??
SPOILERS... I think what really made me struggle with this film was Takatsuki. His 10 minute monologue in the car, his insanely abrupt murder, and his arrest seemed very awkward. This is something I struggle with, with movies like this. Soooo much of it is subtle and does the slow burn that I love, but then they just go into these exposition dump scenes that seem really disconnected with the rest of the film. I had a similar response to YiYi when I watched it. So much of the film is brilliant, subtle, and meditative, but it's insanely bogged down by this soap opera level of dramatic crying every other scene. I do plan on watching Drive My Car again, but I really wasn't feeling it that much the first time. Great review as always, this convinced me to give it another shot.
I, too, wondered about Takatsuki's role in the overall narrative and meaning. Eventually I came to the conclusion that he is somewhat a foil to Yusuke. Takatsuki is so explosive, so expressive of his emotions in a way that Yusuke never was, but very much needed to be. And yet, Takatsuki felt so very emotionally empty while Yusuke's emotions threatened to overwhelm him. I think it says a lot that Takatsuki initially auditioned (and seems better fit) for the role of Astrov, but was given the role of Vanya. This creates a link between Takatsuki and Yusuke that is supported by the underlying narrative of the play, in which both Anton and Vanya are in love with the same woman (Yelena), but express their love in distinct ways.
You didn't like the scene in the car with Takatsuki? I thought it was some of the most brilliant acting I have ever seen in a film,it was hypnotic. I'm not sure if I am correct about this so correct me if I'm wrong but I think it was at that monologue that Takatsuki admitted not just the affair he had with Oto, but the love he had for her. At what point does Takatsuki realize that kafuku was aware of their affair? When Kafuku came home and saw Oto making love with another man, did we see Takatsuki's face because I don't remember seeing it, and I was surprised when it seems to be a given that Kafuku knew it was Takatsuki. Also, what did you make of the story about the girl sneaking into the boys house,it had a very bloody ending, I wonder if Takatsuki made up the ending himself and said it was from Oto. I just read the short story,it lays things out a little more clearly, I think the movie was intentionally vague. Why did they make Takatsuki this violent psycho, what was the point of that,it is not in short story? I wish there was some kind of chat room to talk about the movie.
Drive my car is pretentious garbage. It's full of talk don't show, it's full of expository dialogue, and it's very uncinematic full of long boring transport scenes that just extend the allready unforgiving 3 hour runtime. I love slow Japanese movies like Dare mo shiranai or shoplifters, but those movies actually have great performances and real conflict and drama. This movie is just like watching paint dry or someone driving a car for an hour, it's just terrible and way to long. Its obvious they adapted a short story to a three hour long movie, so there's a lot of filler here. Just fair warning, don't believe the criticts they are either smoking something or afraid to say anything bad about it because its so hyped right now. If you wanna sit through three hours of people sitting down rehearsing a pretentious play or driving a car through japanese vistas then this is the movie for you. If you actually want to see something that moves you then watch dare mo shiranai or shoplifters. And the trailer of Drive my car is so manipulative! It makes it seem as though it's a drama about a man who doesn't understand or respect women and he learns to respect women, etc, the movie has nothing to do with that. It's about communication, it's about learning to express and communicate, which is an interesting idea but so badly executed here. The meta stuff doesn't work when the movie is boring, it's like having dinner at Noma where they serve you a fried egg with rocks from the beach behind the restaurant, it's just a fried egg! Oh its so meta and artsy so you have to pay 500 dollars for that fried egg! It's just a fried egg! Seriously when you pay that kind of money at a 3 star michelin restaurant you expect gastronomic orgasms not a fried egg, same thing here, when you go see a a best foreign film candidate you expect a gut punch of an emotional rollercoaster not three hours of people rehearsing and sitting in cars.
I don't get why people liked this movie and this review did nothing to help explain that to me. If I wanted to watch a movie that puts one in a meditative state where a guy rides in a car grieving and blaming himself for his wife's death I'd just watch The Brown Bunny. It's half the length and there's a blow job at the end
Wow, I can't believe it, I thought that I was the only person in the world that liked The Brown Bunny, it's nice to meet you,we should grab a cup of coffee.
@@davidsheriff9274 oh I love Vincent Gallo. Both his directorial efforts and his insanely entertaining personality. The Brown Bunny has been slowly gaining more and more fans as the years roll on I feel. One of the best trance movies around. Never mind Roger Eberts review, Godard and Herzog liking it is enough for me
@@stevekaincomedy I guess it's a matter of option, but I think the brown bunny is a fascinating movie. It's more in the style of European and Asian films. It's slow paced and he's not afraid to have long shots where not much is happening. I think the only other movie he directed was Buffalo 66 which I also really liked. He acted in a movie called Palookaville, which is pretty good. I used to see him walking around Soho all the time,he was always on the phone and he was always wearing a long fur coat and red cowboy boots. Did you really not like Drive my Car or are you just being a contrarian?
@@davidsheriff9274 it was okay, there were things I liked and things I didn't. I didn't get emotionally or intellectually invested in it the way it appears many critics and people in this comment section have. I watched it two weeks ago and my memory on it is alread fading which is never good. I think 30 to 45 minutes could have been cut, and not because it was too long, I just feel there was a different and better movie in there that could have been created in post production if they left some things out
I appreciate your take on the movie. I just saw it yesterday at a theater in Denver, so I'm still in a process of digesting the contents. Funny surprise was that because I'm Japanese I had thought that I was going to get a free ride in terms of language requirement. But I ended up with reading the subtitle text all the way to the end in order not to miss or to understand the complexity of psychological web woven into the cinema. Also it was partially because of an experimental multi-lingual approach introduced in the story's theatrical work (drama within the drama) as a metaphorical means and the mirror like function for the thematically issues of our communication straggle to made me read the subtitle. Since I'm an artist myself, the behind the scene creative process such as that was familiar to me at the same time refreshing to see it in my face. I loved the intentional stoic emotionless text reading practice forced onto the auditioned actors chosen for the production of Chekhov work. That had a metaphorical impact on the theme, I thought.
The dinner scene was beautiful as everyone was communicating in one way or another.
My favourite film in a long time. There's absolutely nothing in the text, not one thread, that I do not feel in my bones, nothing that does not move me profoundly. It had me on the edge of my seat by the hour mark and floored by the third, and i started the film pretty comfortable in bed.
Wow, what a film! And wow, what an analysis! I saw the film last night (march 23, European premiere) and it's still 'ringing around in my mind'. Thinking about: "What did I see, what does this all mean, how it touches and moves me." Girl, you hit it spot on. We definitely saw the same film. I totaly agree with you. One more thing, the the car it self. I'm not a car-person, but what a beautyful car that Saab 900 turbo is. It makes me wanna cry when I see i driving by! And this car is soo connected and in the film and plays such an important role as well. I wouldn't call it another 'character' but I try to find a 'term' that defines it's 'role'. I came up with a "cradle", because (as a vehicle) it cradles around the characters and their stories and it protects them, binds and hold them. But if anyone finds a better word that hold a better description, I like to hear it.
Yes, this film is complex, deep and it makes you work hard watching it, but it's worth it. Just realize it's 3 hours long and set your mind for it.
I really like what you said about the car, I think that was a beautiful interpretation.
@Michael Snoeren: This film, for me, is less of a memory, & more of an imprint - in my mind, I keep going back to see that it’s still there...& I feel that I will go on learning from
it!
What a wonder!
🙏🏻💔🙏🏽
I can see you tearing up at the end while talking about the resolution. I feel the same way. Such a deeply moving film to even just think about
To answer your question: I think it is the right length for the reasons you gave (as well as several commentators). I loved it. I listen to audiobooks, so a full story in just 3 hours is a real bargain (this movie is novelistic). The ending is what makes it whole, which is also its strength.
Your review is everything I couldn’t verbalize. Obviously getting best pic and best directing nominations I knew this movie would be good. But goodness… it took until the dinner scene with the Korean couple for the magic to finally take me over. And then that 30 min prologue with Oto …that was so boring ..is actually so important. The last scene in the play with that actress saying we will struggle and suffer… but we will rest. We will rest. I was fully sobbing. And then the actual ending of the film. Perfection. My fav film in the last 5 years. The “Sachi” story broke my heart. That actresses delivery was so on point.
my god ...as for someone who couldn't verbalize this movie...you sure did
Maggie you have got to watch The Worst Person in the World
I have been watching your videos lately, and this is the one that made me subscribe. It’s an excellent review of a deeply beautiful, human, profound film. I have not watched this since my first viewing back in March, but I believe I will be rewatching it soon. Also (I know Oscars don’t matter, time does with films), this was my personal pick for Best Picture this year. I do like CODA to a certain degree and I do get why it won (feel good movie that a lot of people like in dark times), but this to me is the best of that category from this year.
I did like the meta nature of it as it once again asserts the notion that life and fiction are often quite similar. Not super deep I know but it’s what I love about films like F for Fake, Day for Night, Contempt, Drive My Car.
Was curious about your thoughts of this. I found this a very hypnotic and moving film. Definitely slow at parts but thankfully it was a beautifully shot and brilliantly acted. A really unique viewing experience
The redundancy of the film is like the actors preparing for the play.
Why are we reading the text over and over again they ask each other.
They focus so much on the text that they drop their guard and whatever emotion the text calls forth slips out of them without them noticing.
Beautiful review, from someone who actually SAW & felt the movie!
Thank you so much!
🙏🏽🌹🙏🏻
I am visiting Los Angeles in a couple of months, and I was looking on the internet for what I might want to do when I'm out there.I couldn't believe it, but throughout the whole month of June, The Pasadena Playhouse is going to be putting on"Uncle Vanya". I have never seen it before, but I am excited to have the chance to see it in its entirety. I bet one of the main factors they are doing it now, is because of the success of" Drive My Car".
Damn- now that's a review! I'm simultaneously jealous I can't think this deep about movies, and in admirable awe- fantastic job!
your comment lacks the fundamental foundations of common parlance which we would all assume quintessential to an unbiased and wholly subjective opinion.
@@RamblesBrambles Oops, sorry- what I meant to say was "You rock, Deep Focus!"
Yusuke tellin Takatsuki to keep his wife’s name out of his fucking mouth lol
I really liked the first 40 minutes of the movie, getting a peak into this strange creative process of the wife and also the unusual dynamic of their relationship. The actress who played the main character's wife gave the best performance of the film I feel.
And much later the scene in the car, the conversation between the protagonist and the younger actor was very moving and I loved the metaphor of the story; it was so heartbreaking.
But I think the tragedy in the main character's life was enough; I don't think the film needed the almost unbelievable tragedies of the driver and the younger actor.
This is something I've noticed in other asian films as well, these unbelievable tragedies the characters experience that are so tragic they almost border on the absurd, or the comical.
His wife having a cerebral hemorrhage before they could have their talk, that was tragic enough. We didn't need the driver's mom (who also had dissociative identity disorder?) being killed in a landslide and the younger actor going to prison for murdering an amateur paparazzi. It was too much. All that stuff just really took me out of the movie. What was next? We learn that the mute girl's whole family died in a bus accident? This is what I mean that the tragedy is so unbelievable it starts to border on the absurd, almost comical.
But I did enjoy the meditative quality of the film as you said, and the scene you mentioned when they're holding up the cigarettes through the sunroof also stuck out to me. Such a beautiful shot! Especially with the halo from one of the streetlights sitting perfectly between their hands, like the moon or a setting sun. That shot just came together perfectly.
I do wish we got more of Ota's stories and metaphors and less of the driver and the younger actor's stories.
I kind of agree with everything you said. At first I thought the movie was not going anywhere or that it was taking too long to get to it, but it kept unfolding all the way through pretty nicely. I loved the “bad guy” in the film as well. It was a very good performance that gave the movie a lot of personality and honestly I wish he would’ve been a bigger part of the ending. In any case, I agree with you it’s worth it for the people that like slow movies, but I could see some people finding too long and slow to stay on board the entire time
you mean..less intelligent people than you won't enjoy this
@Juan Ramirez - I expect to hear much more about Masaki
Okada ( the one who Jane Campion calls ‘BAD BOY!’)
His character is so ambiguous, & so androgynous - I felt in that scene ‘in the back of the car’ his sorrow felt so real...powerful & low-key at the same time, the film really kicks off for me - ‘if we want to understand others, we need to look at ourselves’
Right? Right!
From Brighton 🌈 UK, take care & be well y’all!
🙏🏻🌹🙏🏽
@@Cristobels-Green-Boots I think you are referring to the character named Takatsuki, Misaki is the name of the driver.
@@davidsheriff9274: Thank you David! It is a bit confusing...
The name of the lovely chauffeuse is indeed Misaki;
I had to look twice to see that the actor who owned the
‘conversation in the back of the car’ - such deep emotion & no histrionics - is named
Masaki Okada, very similar, yes?
Trawling through UA-cam
(how could I resist?) I discover that he was a Teen Idol in Japan,
which makes the casting, to my mind, inspiring!
I also believe that Masaki Okada is going places...
Thank you for your kind attention: take care & be well!
🙏🏽🌹🙏🏻
@@Cristobels-Green-Boots Oh, you are correct, that was my mistake, I thought you were talking about the names of the characters,but you were talking about the names of the actors. You're right, the young man that played the character of Takatsuki, is indeed named "Masaki Okada, my bad.
He is a very fine actor. One thing about his character that I haven't heard anybody mention, it's not a big deal, but I thought it was kind of funny. Do you remember when they were all outside and that guy took a picture of him, and Takatsuki followed him and came back about thirty seconds later, and we find out the guy later died from his injuries? Takatsuki was a very scrawny guy, how was he able to beat that guy so badly in just a few seconds? He must have bashed the guy's head in from behind with a big rock and managed to not get one drop of blood on himself. People have referred to his character as "hot headed" that's a heck of an understatement, "psychopath" is a little more accurate.
If you read Haruki Murakami's work he leaves space and distance sometimes for us to fill in our own suggestions as to where the story is or ends. Kudos to the director for taking the source material and expanding on it, giving it more flesh and bone. I recently saw The Batman and it overstayed its film time. This was three hours long and I was so taken by this movie I felt it could've gone on longer. The theme of grief and trying to find commonality with others is part of the human condition. I felt both of them felt a sense of guilt and regret which left them in perpetual standstill. This was a terrific film in a year that has already given us Red Rocket, The Worse Person in the World etc.
For me it didn’t feel longer than a 2 hr movie…it was definitely an emotional experience for me because I have had similar experiences to the main character, and I feel the same as you do about the final scene of the play! Thank for sharing your review!
It's 2024 and I just watched the movie, it was so cool watching the way it unfurls like a lotus. There were times it felt that it was meandering a bit, then when you realize how everything is weaving in and out of each other and all the pieces come together it's such a cathartic conclusion
I always thought about why I'm not into slow movies which are deemed amazing, such as Roma, such as Boyhood. And here comes Drive My Car, and I love it and ur analysis is amazing and like everything you said is so weirdly accurate to what i feel about the movie, even the part where u said that u decided to watch the movie again, which i did also and it rarely happens to me that i want to watch something again. I'll be following u!
I appreciate your review as someone who has chewed on this film for a week or so, having loved it from the first taste. Your thoughts about the film’s longueurs felt insightful. The way long periods of ordinary life and its griefs or whatever don’t progress a plot but when they mature into an expanded understanding and empathy one feels a sense of fulfillment and gratitude. You articulated a way film and other narratives can help us see the narratives of our personal lives lead to meaning. I was reminded of my experiences reading Joyce’s Ulysses and Finnegans Wake where I sometimes thought he could’ve cut certain bits with a good editor but after a day or two I thought my love of the experience of clarity afterwards would not have come without the slower times. Slow film is as good as slow food!
I thought film was brilliant its definitely a slow burner. When the film finished i was left in awe of what i experienced. It felt like was watching the life of somebody in real even though i was aware it was film. I dont sounds really dumb. But whole idea of grief and how we deal it and we convince ourselves that we're ok. Because we've managed to go on with life even certain amount of years pass from certain persons death. I can definitely relate and this film expressed brilliantly how i feel sometimes about someone's passing and how even the littles noments in life like that car scene where they light a cigarette but dont smoke in car (because of the main character rules) instead put their hands through the sunroof little moments like that in life are beatiful. I guess last thing i loved was when they were in house of the mute lady having dinner and when she spoke in sign language instead what she is saying translated on screen with subtitles we instead get the translation from her husband. I dont why i thought that was a nice touch. Lol
Been waiting for this!!
Nice Jumper.
I liked it a lot during my first watch and I didn't really feel the length of the movie. I will say I didn't expect it to be so emotionally affecting despite the going ons in the film. During the final act, when the two characters are in the car speaking of those they lost, I struggled to hold back tears throughout the rest of it.
I found it really beautiful and wonder if I would have been half as affected had the running time been shorter.
I'm really interested in hearing your thoughts on 'Don't Look Up' since it seems like the kind of film you would find insufferable. And it's also baffling that it's nominated for editing.
DFL review of DLU would involve copious quantities of wine.
Everyone finds that garbage insufferable.
@@AndrewWatson401 You're right, I don't want Maggie to die of alcohol poisoning
Ugh god fuck that movie. In/Frame/Out and The Costume Codex both did great videos about how that film fails both as satire and also as a movie on the whole, if you're seeking some well articulated validation for hating a surprisingly well regarded piece of shit.
Cannot wait for that review! 😬
would you ever consider doing a video on mma? As a huge mma fan I would love to hear your thoughts on why you got into the sport, what you like about it, or some of your favorite fights/fighters
Amusing quote from the director, c/o Wikipedia: (On the ending of Drive My Car) "Once I talked with a big fan of Drive My Car who said that it really would have been perfect without that ending. (Laugh) Well, I think maybe the reason I ended that way is to make it a bit imperfect."
I'm watching this now and waiting for you to mention that it's based on a Haruki Murakami short story...If you're familiar with his work the connection seems clear. Burning was amazing too, similar in a lot of ways!
It's actually based on two short stories from "Men without Women", The story about the highschool girl cones from a different story in the book called "Scheherazade". I had never heard of Haruki Murakami before, I loved the movie so much I bought the book and I absolutely hated it. The fact that the director was able to make such a beautiful epic masterpiece from a couple of nothing stories goes to his genius.
@@davidsheriff9274 haha! Wow. His novels are great. I recommend Sputnik Sweetheart, Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World, Colorless Tsukuru and his Years of Pilgrimage, Dance Dance Dance. So many great books!
@@christopherpaul7588There are so many fans of Haruki Murakami that are fanatical about him. Most people recommend "Norwegian Wood" "Kafka on the Shore" "Wild Sheep Chase" and "The Wind-up Bird Chronicles", the ones you mentioned are not as well known. I have read excerpts and reviews of them and read all of"Men without Women", they all seem to be kind of the same. Loneliness,self deception, alienation, jazz, pointless unresolved mysteries and magical Freudian symbolism. Maybe I just don't like his style of writing. Someone told me that if I want to read some"Murakami",I should try Ryu Murakami,it might be more up my alley. Have you read anything by him? "In the Miso Soup"Piercings" Coin Locked Babies",he also wrote the book "Audition" that the movie is based on. I ordered"Piercings" so I'll see if I like it. If it has a scene where someone is making pasta while listening to Miles Davis as a magical cat is walking around, I will officially be done with all Murakamis.😁
@@davidsheriff9274 Those are as well known. Great books. I also loved the ones you mentioned accept Norwegian Wood. I think it's overrated. Not terrible, it's just not his best book. There is also a movie based on Norwegian Wood, and my favorite film based on Murakami is Burning. It's amazing. I love all of those things you mentioned, the archetypes. I love it when a writer or filmmaker has an obsession that they return to every time. My favorite writer, Roberto Bolaño, has a few of those, as well as my favorite filmmaker, David Lynch, which are obvious if you've ever seen any of his movies. We learn a little something extra about Murakami through his love of pasta, whisky, and cats, and his obsession with missing women and these archetypes tie all his work together somehow.
@@christopherpaul7588 I didn't know Murakami wrote the story of"Burning", that was a fantastic movie. I don't know why everyone was making such a big deal of"Parasite", I didn't like that movie at all. I have never heard of Roberto Bolano, I was reading a little about him,he sounds interesting, which one of his books do you recommend? What do you think of his book of short stories? I agree that some of the best writers use similar themes in their books, but I think Murakami is just not for me. I can understand why you like David Lynch ,he also uses a lot of dreamy symbolism. I liked" The Elephant Man" and "Blue Velvet" but I am not really a fan of his other work, I am still trying to figure out what the heck"Lost Highway" was about.
Amazing review. Everything depends on your personal taste for movies. I’ve been seeing films that belong to this line of aesthetics, long and contemplative, so I’ve sort of trained my taste for this type of movies. With Drive my car, I felt like I was eating a delicious plate and deconstructing the new flavors as they where been presented. Everything it’s given at the right moment. One extra aspect I would like to remark, it’s that the main character silent, is filled with information and even dialog, when he plays the tapes of the Uncle Vania’s recording. A Mehta aspect having 4 layers of creative process implied (1)Haruki Murakami the writer of the short story, (2)Ryûsuke Hamagucgi the director of the movie, (3) the main character being an artist, and the dramaturg of the play inside the movie (4)Anton Chekhov. Artist find their way to speak for, through and to the human soul. Absolutely enjoyed every second of it.
I love your reviews and this one was not an exception. We watched it during Oscar week at our cinema not even knowing about its length and only reading the ridiculously misleading description from the movie listing. At 40 minutes -- I think it was more like 40 minutes rather than the 30 minutes you mention, but I may be wrong -- and the opening credits finally come up was when the realization hits that this was going to be something really special. At the point we have a brief scene from Waiting for Godot it is also obvious. I too hate flashbacks and appreciate you illuminate the directors choice to eschew those. This was a movie with full rich female characters, a movie that respected those female characters in ways that Power of the Dog and Don't Look Up didn't. (Licorice Pizza had a great female in Alana, so the picks were not all poor in that regard.) I was surprised at my own reaction to the moving sign language acting. There is much that is explained, and enough that isn't. I felt the movie had enough plot for 4 or 5 movies and that was fine with me. We didn't see her telling the stories to her lovers in the opening, so that was a later reveal -- the opening served to leave enough ambiguity and see the wife as a more complete character than flashbacks would have allowed. Plus it allowed her orgasms, and the the sexiest parts to not visually punctuate the later resolution, plus be a memory we dealt with along with the two males. That elongation also served that purpose. I remarked to my wife on the plainness of his driver, and of course additionally that she was his deceased daughters age, to the extent that the movie never played with us to create an expectation that sexual tension would exist in that quarter. Lastly, I did not find the Social Justice aspects to be heavy-handed and I am a conservative who is sensitive to any sign of heavy-handedness. Perhaps you meant more heavy-handed in the sense of making obvious statements. That is true, but I appreciated that some points were made obvious. One of my other aphorisms about the movie was that is was mature movie with a conscious but that it was not woke.
Good analysis. This movie was incredible impactful and worth the time it takes to build up.
Hi Maggie. I am your new subscriber and I love your videos so much, especially 'A Message From the heart'' i love that video so much, I'm so related with that video. And I love your honesty, you are a brave woman. I love you so much Maggie, Be safe and Be happy ❤❤❤
I put this movie in the same category as Paterson and The Assistant. Movies that flirt with but never fall into cliche or trope, and therefore offer a new experience.
One thing I noticed if you are a Haruki Murakami fan you could feel his style on the movie.
I think one of the themes in this film is how events that play out in life later become stories which we then interpret as reality. For this reason, I think leaving out the big 35 min intro wouldn’t have been as good.
You get to actually see what happens to Kafuka and then see later how he interprets the story. And then later how he revised the story when he realizes his mistakes.
It’s such a wonderful film about the power of storytelling.
I caught this on HBO max recently and wow . I loved it for the longest time my favorite movie from 2021 was licorice pizza I think this just might top it , I will have to see it again when I have the time but wow . I watched it with my partner she fell asleep I was utterly entranced but I get it , it’s certainly isn’t for everyone.
Great movie and review. What I got from it was the way it contrasts fact and fiction. The main character and his wife work in the arts, theater and TV but are soon faced with very real problems. The beginning where she is telling him a story about a girl in the house of a boy she has a crush on, we are not sure at first if it is real or not. Then later we see the rehearsals of a play and the young actor the director has a history with. So I really liked that aspect of it. It also makes me curious to read "Uncle Vanya" and "Waiting For Godot".
Thank you for speaking about this film that I know little about outside of the buzz it has been receiving. My dear friend and fellow UA-cam movie discussion master, Daisuke Beppu, had shared a photo of his blu-ray of this film on his Instagram and I was very intrigued. I appreciate your spoiler free discussion here that has definitely convinced me I will love this film when I get a chance to see it.
It's so nice to find another Daisuke Beppu fan! His reviews are probably the reason I started expanding my tastes in film and I still watch his videos all these years later. I really wish more UA-camrs would have the confidence (and articulation) to discuss a film without the constant cutting and without limiting themselves to 5 minute reviews - Daisuke Beppu and deepfocuslens are one of the few film review channels worth watching. Hope you enjoy the film!
The movie is based on all the short stories from Murikamis “men without women” collection of short stories. I think that’s why the story feels disconnected sometimes. It’s actually multiple stories combined into one.
going back to it this is my favorite film of last year. wouldn't change a thing about it.
This film reminded me of a more somber version of Studio Ghibli’s “Only Yesterday”
It was a roughcut for me. Some interesting things, but needed to be cut.
I started watching this on HBO MAX but about 40 minutes in, the subtitles got really out of sync. Like, 3 minutes off! Nothing I’ve tried fixed it but hopefully I’ll get to see it all soon.
From the international category, I liked The hand of god > Drive my car > Worst person in the world.
For me, it is the best movie of the year. I believe director made the movie which he wanted to make and I love that. I watched it 2 times. Love the moment of character who couldn't speak and character of driver, love that character as well And finally the movie was beautiful looking, great performance as well.
Btw love your videos the way you are just honest about what you think of the movies. :)
I liked this film a lot but I don't know that I loved it. I absolutely adored the structure in how the first "act" of the film is sort of a misdirection, which then influences the rest of the film. I loved the wife's beautifully hypnotic voice and how that voice "haunts" the rest of the film like a ghost story. I loved the conversations in the first two hours and how language itself is sort of stretched and tested. But in the last hour I felt like something was off.
After a certain point, the characters all sound like the screenwriter. They intellectualize themselves in the same academic way when the conversations before then felt natural and realistically subtle.
The different pieces that were set up (the glaucoma, the play, the use of multiple languages, the lead actor in the play and his relationship with the director) don't really come together. Perhaps if I was intimately familiar with Uncle Vanya and had an understanding of the acting/directing experience then all of these themes might tie together better? Maybe it's a consequence of adapting and condensing several Murakami stories into one 3 hour film (the director's film Happy Hour is 5 hours long; maybe this film needed to be). Or maybe it's by design that these elements are just there to be experienced, but if so then why does it all feel so purposeful? I think, ironically, something is lost in translation
And crucially, I think the emotional distance actually hurts it in the long run. I was fascinated and immersed, but I was never moved. That said, I would easily watch it again, as well as anything else from Hamaguchi.
What movies have you been emotionally moved by, if you don't mind my asking?
I want to know which mic are you using it’s so clear and amazing audio output
How many times do you watch a film before you review and how do you analyze a film and what do you look for when it comes to wanting to review it.
I loved it, I really didn’t think I was gonna be able to stay 3 hours watching a movie but I loved it.
i love the drawn out nature of the film. great review!
I was surprised when you mentioned the fact that the movie is about three hours long, definitely didn't felt like three hours to me when I was watching it the first time.
Yeah, this is a good flick. I thought the opening 40 or so minutes were the weakest part, but overall it was quite satisfying.
happened to have decided to watch this on a saturday morning and into the afternoon. i could not agree more! occasionally frustrating and heavy-handed but just goddamn beautiful. i wouldn't change a thing about it. as you say, experiencing the unfurling of the characters' stories and the poignant, transcendent resolution make every second worth it.
so glad I saw this in theaters, where the 3 hours passed without any issue for me
whereas I felt every bit of THE BATMAN in a bad way
It would’ve been hard to focus on the film at home with all the distractions, but it deserves its runtime
Finally watched this I honestly thought it was damn near perfect. It needed the whole 3 hours
Loved it... had to watch it twice. It was better second time around.
Great Beatles song, too.
@13:53: "...it's all performance; life is a play."
That certainly goes with the Indian and Hindu worldviews, where the whole world is an "act" or "dance" rather than a "creation".
So we are all actors playing or parts in a movie without any permanent or specific director.
Didn't Shakespeare say "All the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players"? We all play such different roles throughout our short time here.. Different characters throughout the years and different characters to the people in our lives. Do you remember that hit song by the band"The Verve"? One of the lines is" it's a bittersweet symphony that's life, cause I'm a million different people from one day to the next". I think that's one of the things that the movie addresses, we have to learn to accept ourselves and others for being complicated and irrational beings that are imperfect, and we need to cut ourselves and others a little slack. There is an old expression "God didn't want any competition, so he made people".
Yusuke deserved a better wife that made him happy.
So I did a quick scan of your reviews, and did not see "A Serbian Film" the story is horrible, but the technical aspects of film making are very good, though it does require a strong stomach. Also I did not see "City of Lost Children" (which is currently on amazon prime) if you want to see Ron Perlman acting in French.
A Serbian Film "really? If you are looking for a seriously disturbing movie, have you seen the French film "Martyrs"?
Yeah. Just finished this. It's great. But you need to be aware but is an extremely slow movie. It's very impactful though.
The meaning of this movie is too deep in my mind. Especially I am knowledgeable in all 3 languages and their life styles: Japanese, Korean and Chinese. The reason I watch it was the attraction of the 1987 Saab Turbo as I really want one of these prior to seeing the movie.
His film Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy that also came out last year is better imo
this movie has feelings. great job
It's interesting to hear from people who had no problem sitting the exact same amount of time watching "The Batman," but who take issue with "Drive My Car" being "too long." Perhaps maybe the meatier "The Batman" has the gruff action and ticking-clock momentum that oftentimes "feels" like it helps move things along, but I would argue the meditative quality of "Drive My Car," and particularly Ryusuke Hamaguchi's handling of it, is just as meaty and intentional. It's oftentimes cerebral in its portrayal of events, which make seemingly dull or lifeless events feel mandatory and necessary for completing its intended arc. Take any one scene out and you might actually lose value. It takes sweet time to be painterly and poetic, yes, but it's all confidently stroked and spoken, crafting an intimate and relatable portrait much, as you suggest, is similar to the masterpieces of Ozu. Can you tell I loved this film?
Yeah much has been made about the length of Drive My Car and I don't understand. I watched The Godfather, Drive My Car, and The Batman in a row (on separate days; I'm not that crazy...). All three hour films, all perfectly paced, all of which flew by, and all of which I easily could have watched for at least another hour. The first section of Drive My Car almost feels like it's own short film that then leads into a 2 and a half hour experience that's separate, and when it was over I actually did wish it was another hour longer just because there were certain aspects I wanted to see more of
There is a difference between the duration of a film and the perceived duration. Drive My Car was not my favorite film, I have to admit, and it felt like 4 hours to me, while The Godfather felt like one and a half hours at most...and you mention a "meditative state" but I did not get into it at all so I was very conscious of the time, and I can imagine that watching The Batman (I haven't seen it yet) is a totally different experience and would probably feel much shorter to me. So it is very subjective...
This movie is something that really connected with me
Discord loves "Drive My Car". I know nothing about the film other than the fact that people on Discord won't shut up about it. So with all due respect, I'll be waiting for the hype to die down.
Outside of this specific circumstance, I'm always up for a more meditative work (many of which Maggie has discussed before on here).
I loved it but it could have been 20 minutes shorter.
What twenty minutes would you have left out?To me the only problem with this movie was that it wasn't long enough, I didn't want it to end.
I think some of the spaces between scenes were long as well as some of the monologues. I also think the "prologue" could have been a little shorter but I still think it was very good and I liked it very much.
My favorite film of 2021 next to Titane.
I am interested in seeing Titane, is there any plot or narrative to it?
@@davidsheriff9274 just watch it
I couldn’t believe he just walked out after catching his wife cheating…that was shocking…I definitely wouldn’t have responded how he did…
It was such a strange thing to see CODA win the Oscar for Best Picture against this masterpiece.
Who cares about the Oscars?Citizen Kane didn't even win best picture.
will watch it
The lady with the sign language and the long dialog with the young antagonist in the car were the best parts for me. I did not feel much impact on the resolution at the end. The protagonist and the driver lady has not really much in common. I did not get that parallel feeling from them.
I think they both similarly experience regret, lost and empty. They both slowly open up to each other try to cope with it and move on. I think that's what happened in Hokkaido.
@@fufu5068 I get the protagonists regret, lost and emptiness, I just could not connected well with the driver lady's back story with her mother. She was abused by her mother for years, yet her only friend was her mother's split personality. That sounds extremely surreal to me. You get alienated from your parents, you go and find friends. But maybe it is something with living in Japan. Many people are traditionally introvert and isolated from public as far as I know.
@@hadeseus but ironically,if you have parents that are abusive either physically or emotionally,or just unloving, making friends and getting close to other people is more difficult because you are so petrified of getting hurt, you were never taught how to deal with emotional pain. Misaki's only friend was the childlike persona that came out in her mother after the abuse. Misaki had no one else. She knew that if she let her mother die,her abuser would die but so would her only friend. She made her decision at that moment and she had to live with it.
Did he ever lose the sight in his eye? Or did I miss something
It is basically a NEW TYPE of movie. More like a LIVE footage of unedited superrr looooooong takes, its for meditation. Like imagine if u basically take a dash cam but with a nicer 1080 lens and just meditate with driving footage.. it is a movie that is suppperrrrrrr experimental and basically capitalising on the "I'm different fact and throw in a deaf person (since being deaf seems to be this years Oscar flavor *coda* ) but I promise u DO NOT pay money for this u will feel robbed. I watched the movie at 2.50x speed and it was still SLOW!! IMAGINNNEEE 2.5X and it was releee slow lol . I honestly downloaded it for free n now use it as background to go to sleep its perfect for that
I hated this film..I don't want to see any more tunnels in my life ever fucking again..omg..ive been through grief..jeez..this was way more painful
if that's true, consider yourself very lucky.
You should must watch nuri bilge films
FIRST 💪
I was kinda ambivalent during the first hour, then the last 2 hours I was completely sold. I was just in love with these characters and their natural conversations. It was just so comforting to listen to the 2 main characters talk for hours. Their relationship was wonderfully plutonic. Reminded me a lot of Up, two unlikely friends with issues who find companionship with each other
Same. The movie is obviously best pic nominated. So I just kept waiting for this best pic moment to happen and for me it was the scene with the Korean couple. From there on it was absolutely magical and totally my fav movie in the last 5 years. The last scene with the play had me sobbing 😭 when she repeats “we will rest”.
Did you see a better 2021 film?
I don't get it , what message they are giving through this movie??
Is it okay to love one person and sleep with other?
Finally hero blames himself for not listening to his wife. But is it only him who made mistake??
Where is George Martin when you need him??
Roadhouse
SPOILERS...
I think what really made me struggle with this film was Takatsuki. His 10 minute monologue in the car, his insanely abrupt murder, and his arrest seemed very awkward. This is something I struggle with, with movies like this. Soooo much of it is subtle and does the slow burn that I love, but then they just go into these exposition dump scenes that seem really disconnected with the rest of the film.
I had a similar response to YiYi when I watched it. So much of the film is brilliant, subtle, and meditative, but it's insanely bogged down by this soap opera level of dramatic crying every other scene. I do plan on watching Drive My Car again, but I really wasn't feeling it that much the first time.
Great review as always, this convinced me to give it another shot.
I, too, wondered about Takatsuki's role in the overall narrative and meaning. Eventually I came to the conclusion that he is somewhat a foil to Yusuke. Takatsuki is so explosive, so expressive of his emotions in a way that Yusuke never was, but very much needed to be. And yet, Takatsuki felt so very emotionally empty while Yusuke's emotions threatened to overwhelm him. I think it says a lot that Takatsuki initially auditioned (and seems better fit) for the role of Astrov, but was given the role of Vanya. This creates a link between Takatsuki and Yusuke that is supported by the underlying narrative of the play, in which both Anton and Vanya are in love with the same woman (Yelena), but express their love in distinct ways.
You didn't like the scene in the car with Takatsuki? I thought it was some of the most brilliant acting I have ever seen in a film,it was hypnotic. I'm not sure if I am correct about this so correct me if I'm wrong but I think it was at that monologue that Takatsuki admitted not just the affair he had with Oto, but the love he had for her. At what point does Takatsuki realize that kafuku was aware of their affair? When Kafuku came home and saw Oto making love with another man, did we see Takatsuki's face because I don't remember seeing it, and I was surprised when it seems to be a given that Kafuku knew it was Takatsuki. Also, what did you make of the story about the girl sneaking into the boys house,it had a very bloody ending, I wonder if Takatsuki made up the ending himself and said it was from Oto. I just read the short story,it lays things out a little more clearly, I think the movie was intentionally vague. Why did they make Takatsuki this violent psycho, what was the point of that,it is not in short story? I wish there was some kind of chat room to talk about the movie.
great review....and you are Beautiful.
The only good thing about it the sex scene 😅
I'm going to use big words and quasi intellectual thoughts about how I think I should feel about this film...because I'm a UA-cam commenter
What....??? Nonsense. You are taking nonsense. Had to stop watching at 5:55.
Drive my car is pretentious garbage. It's full of talk don't show, it's full of expository dialogue, and it's very uncinematic full of long boring transport scenes that just extend the allready unforgiving 3 hour runtime.
I love slow Japanese movies like Dare mo shiranai or shoplifters, but those movies actually have great performances and real conflict and drama. This movie is just like watching paint dry or someone driving a car for an hour, it's just terrible and way to long. Its obvious they adapted a short story to a three hour long movie, so there's a lot of filler here.
Just fair warning, don't believe the criticts they are either smoking something or afraid to say anything bad about it because its so hyped right now.
If you wanna sit through three hours of people sitting down rehearsing a pretentious play or driving a car through japanese vistas then this is the movie for you. If you actually want to see something that moves you then watch dare mo shiranai or shoplifters.
And the trailer of Drive my car is so manipulative! It makes it seem as though it's a drama about a man who doesn't understand or respect women and he learns to respect women, etc, the movie has nothing to do with that. It's about communication, it's about learning to express and communicate, which is an interesting idea but so badly executed here. The meta stuff doesn't work when the movie is boring, it's like having dinner at Noma where they serve you a fried egg with rocks from the beach behind the restaurant, it's just a fried egg! Oh its so meta and artsy so you have to pay 500 dollars for that fried egg! It's just a fried egg! Seriously when you pay that kind of money at a 3 star michelin restaurant you expect gastronomic orgasms not a fried egg, same thing here, when you go see a a best foreign film candidate you expect a gut punch of an emotional rollercoaster not three hours of people rehearsing and sitting in cars.
The most boring film I've seen....ever.
I don't get why people liked this movie and this review did nothing to help explain that to me. If I wanted to watch a movie that puts one in a meditative state where a guy rides in a car grieving and blaming himself for his wife's death I'd just watch The Brown Bunny. It's half the length and there's a blow job at the end
Wow, I can't believe it, I thought that I was the only person in the world that liked The Brown Bunny, it's nice to meet you,we should grab a cup of coffee.
@@davidsheriff9274 oh I love Vincent Gallo. Both his directorial efforts and his insanely entertaining personality. The Brown Bunny has been slowly gaining more and more fans as the years roll on I feel. One of the best trance movies around. Never mind Roger Eberts review, Godard and Herzog liking it is enough for me
@@stevekaincomedy I guess it's a matter of option, but I think the brown bunny is a fascinating movie. It's more in the style of European and Asian films. It's slow paced and he's not afraid to have long shots where not much is happening. I think the only other movie he directed was Buffalo 66 which I also really liked. He acted in a movie called Palookaville, which is pretty good. I used to see him walking around Soho all the time,he was always on the phone and he was always wearing a long fur coat and red cowboy boots.
Did you really not like Drive my Car or are you just being a contrarian?
@@davidsheriff9274 it was okay, there were things I liked and things I didn't. I didn't get emotionally or intellectually invested in it the way it appears many critics and people in this comment section have. I watched it two weeks ago and my memory on it is alread fading which is never good. I think 30 to 45 minutes could have been cut, and not because it was too long, I just feel there was a different and better movie in there that could have been created in post production if they left some things out
@@stevekaincomedy we can agree to disagree about that. What filmmakers do you like? What do you think of Lars von Trier? He's probably my favorite.