Adapted from Murakami’s short story, “Men Without Women”, a recently widowed director is invited to direct a play at a festival in Hiroshima. His chauffeur, a stoic woman, becomes his confidant.
Producer:
Teruhisa Yamamoto
Language:
Japanese
Length:
179 min
Writer:
Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Takamasa Oe
Year:
2021
Edition
RIFF 2021
Director's statement
The first time that I read Drive My Car, the short story, was in 2013. A friend of mine suggested I should read it because he thought I would enjoy it. There were indeed elements that were familiar to me: drama, acting and, as the title says – Drive My Car – cars, vehicles. I think the inside of a car is a very good environment for intimate conversations; I have personal experience of this and had already explored this in other films. I think that in this film, Kafuku, and Misake, in this enclosed space of the car, connect, and their relationship develops and I think their intimacy also increases, and that relationship already existed in the original short story, and I think it is at the heart of this film.
