Drive My Car (Ryusuke Hamaguchi, 2021)

need to see this

 

Beautiful film. For a three hour meditation on grief, the pacing is very good. It doesn't really feel its length

 

I've never read Men Without Women, but it's interesting to me that of all of Murakami's stories to adapt, they chose this one which doesn't even seem to be one of his more popular ones (and it’s a short-story too). I feel like Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World or Kafka on the Shore would make great movies. Anyway, definitely want to see this.

 

Saw this the other night in the theater and it completely wrecked me. Visually gorgeous and really powerful emotional themes about trying to forgive yourself and carrying on in spite of suffering. Hands down my movie of the year imo

 

Does the Beatles song show up?

 

No

 

This isn't a Murakami novel for what it's worth, it's a short story from his Men Without Women collection. I couldn't really imagine his full novels adapting well to the screen, they're too introspective and surreal. For example - how could the end of Kafka on the Shore ever be depicted on screen?

The only one of his novels that have been adapted is Norwegian Wood, which is a much more straightforward and grounded story.

His short stories though have been adapted frequently and well on screen, we've had Burning, Tony Tikitani, Hanalei Bay, All God's Children Can Dance and this have all been made into films. There's lots of his little stories that I think could work really well as a film, but couldn't imagine his novels being filmable.

 

I think I edited my post to correct myself around the same time you posted this haha.

I agree with you about the introspective dreamlike quality of his writing. That said, I can imagine his books translating well to films created by more arthouse / experimental directors.

Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is being adapted into a film, which seems similarly interesting to me… so much of its brilliance centers around the prose, makes me wonder how it’ll translate visually.

 

This was good.

 

Great, even

 

Seeing this today

 

They really need a directors' cut with the Beatles song at the end.

 

excited for this one

 

So many aspects of this have stuck with me, particularly the scene at the waste center in Hiroshima and the scene where Kafuku and Takatsuki talk about Ota’s stories, that I saw this again. Speaks so strongly to the guilt of grief.

 

I've been shacked up with covid this past week so I watched Asako I & II earlier and Happy Hour yesterday and folks, is Hamaguchi the closest thing to a future great we currently have?

 

I really liked Asako. I think I had Happy Hour on my watchlist years ago but I couldn't find it and got rid of it.

 

Happy Hour is great and has a handful of images that will stick with me for a long time. Probably my least favorite of the three, at 5 hours long it occasionally feels a bit overstuffed with ideas. But if you can set aside a day to give it a proper watch then it's totally worth it imo. It's broken into 3 segments on Kanopy so I did that and took a little break in between each one.

 

Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy is also solid

 

Idk if this was my favorite film of 2021, but I’m pretty confident it’s the best.

 

Just when I thought my top ten for 2021 was settled, this popped up at my local Alamo. What an incredible movie. The scene where Kafuku and Takatsuki discuss the stories in the car is going to stick with me for a while. And I love how the next scene recontextualizes Takatsuki's ending to the story.

Between this and Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, Ryusuke Hamaguchi is now one of my must see directors.

 

This was gorgeous.

 

I watched this yesterday and thought it was very good

 

Really really want to see this, debating driving across town right now to catch a showing at 9:00 at the only theater relatively close to me showing it. But man I’m gonna be very upset if it just winds up on Prime or Hulu in like a week

 

Probably gonna have to do some reading on this one. I enjoyed its tone and pace, found the narrative interesting, but definitely think some stuff might’ve gone over my head

I also somehow entirely forgot this was 3 hours long until the opening credits decided to roll in like 45 minutes deep lol