Get ready for your next marathon with Max! This February, the streamer is saying goodbye to major award winners, camp classics, and more. Most of the platform’s exits will take place on the final day of the month, including the genre and history-changing “The Exorcist,” the recent Oscar winner “Drive My Car,” and more, but Max will remove several other major TV and film titles throughout the month.
We at The Streamable have assembled our top picks for what’s leaving Max this month— continue below to find your next thing to watch and see the full list below to plan your next movie night before they’re gone!
7-Day Free Trial $9.99+ / month Max via amazon.com What are the 5 Best Shows and Movies Leaving Max in February 2024? “Drive My Car” | Thursday, Feb. 29
A recent Oscar winner for Best International Feature Film, the Japanese drama stars Hidetoshi Nishijima as Yūsuke Kafuku,...
We at The Streamable have assembled our top picks for what’s leaving Max this month— continue below to find your next thing to watch and see the full list below to plan your next movie night before they’re gone!
7-Day Free Trial $9.99+ / month Max via amazon.com What are the 5 Best Shows and Movies Leaving Max in February 2024? “Drive My Car” | Thursday, Feb. 29
A recent Oscar winner for Best International Feature Film, the Japanese drama stars Hidetoshi Nishijima as Yūsuke Kafuku,...
- 2/2/2024
- by Ashley Steves
- The Streamable
Ryûsuke Hamaguchi has created a multi-layered nuanced film which slowly reveals its characters in ways we want to discover, witness and savor.
A renowned stage actor and director (Yusuke Kafuku played by Hidetoshi Nishijima) and his wife (Reika Kirishima), a screenwriter, are happily married until she suddenly dies and leaves behind a secret. Two years later, Kafuku, still unable to fully cope with the loss of his wife, receives an offer to direct a play at a theater festival and drives to Hiroshima with his car. There, he is assigned a chauffeur (Tôko Miura), and as they spend time together, they confront the mystery of their families which have quietly haunted them.
It has rightfully garnered a long list of prizes since premiering last July at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won three awards, including best screenplay. It was also named best picture by the National Society of Film Critics in the United States, as well as by critics’ associations in Los Angeles and New York. Most recently, it took the 2022 Golden Globe for best picture in the non-English language category.
Watch the trailer here.
Adapted from two of the stories featured in Haruki Murakami’s collection, “Men Without Women,” Drive My Car, is the exploration of one man’s life after the sudden death of his wife. One story is “Scheherazad,” the story of a woman who’s telling tales while she was having sex. Another is “Kino” which is the name of the main character who is a man being cheated on by his wife. Within that story, the state that he’s able to reach is similar to Kafuku’s own journey’s destination. The rest of the intertwined elements of Drive My Car were written by Ryûsuke Hamaguchi himself along with Takamasa Oe.
Hamaguchi says, “I felt an affinity for its theme of having two people deepen their relationship via having conversations in cars.”
Layers of the story are revealed slowly and the characters’ inter-relationships are also revealed in a way that envelops the audience. For instance, Kafuku reveals he knew about his wife’s infidelity and he suspected one of her amours was a young actor he subsequently hires to be in the play he is directing. However this actor’s own character is so flawed that his actions propel the story into an unexpected direction. The chauffeur’s personal story brings Kafuku to a realization he can only share with the chauffeur and which brings both characters to a sort of closure in their separate burdens of mourning. Drive My Car runs three hours but not a frame is superfluous and the reward is a masterful and poignent shared meditation on mournng.
The film went on to play in San Sebastian and Toronto Film Festivals. Isa The Match Factory sold the film to Janus for the USA. For Austria to Polyfilm, the Baltics to A-One Films Baltic, Benelux — September, Croatia — Kino Mediteran, Denmark — Camera, Estonia — A-One, Finland — Future, France — Diaphana, Germany — Rapid Eye Movies, Italy — Tucker, Japan producer Bitters End, Norway — Arthaus, Poland — Gutek, Singapore — Lighthouse, Slovenia and Ex-Yugoslavia—Demiurg-Cvetka Flakus, Spain — Elastica, Sweden- Njuta, Switzerland — Sister, Taiwan — Andrews, Turkey — Mars, UK — Modern.
A renowned stage actor and director (Yusuke Kafuku played by Hidetoshi Nishijima) and his wife (Reika Kirishima), a screenwriter, are happily married until she suddenly dies and leaves behind a secret. Two years later, Kafuku, still unable to fully cope with the loss of his wife, receives an offer to direct a play at a theater festival and drives to Hiroshima with his car. There, he is assigned a chauffeur (Tôko Miura), and as they spend time together, they confront the mystery of their families which have quietly haunted them.
It has rightfully garnered a long list of prizes since premiering last July at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won three awards, including best screenplay. It was also named best picture by the National Society of Film Critics in the United States, as well as by critics’ associations in Los Angeles and New York. Most recently, it took the 2022 Golden Globe for best picture in the non-English language category.
Watch the trailer here.
Adapted from two of the stories featured in Haruki Murakami’s collection, “Men Without Women,” Drive My Car, is the exploration of one man’s life after the sudden death of his wife. One story is “Scheherazad,” the story of a woman who’s telling tales while she was having sex. Another is “Kino” which is the name of the main character who is a man being cheated on by his wife. Within that story, the state that he’s able to reach is similar to Kafuku’s own journey’s destination. The rest of the intertwined elements of Drive My Car were written by Ryûsuke Hamaguchi himself along with Takamasa Oe.
Hamaguchi says, “I felt an affinity for its theme of having two people deepen their relationship via having conversations in cars.”
Layers of the story are revealed slowly and the characters’ inter-relationships are also revealed in a way that envelops the audience. For instance, Kafuku reveals he knew about his wife’s infidelity and he suspected one of her amours was a young actor he subsequently hires to be in the play he is directing. However this actor’s own character is so flawed that his actions propel the story into an unexpected direction. The chauffeur’s personal story brings Kafuku to a realization he can only share with the chauffeur and which brings both characters to a sort of closure in their separate burdens of mourning. Drive My Car runs three hours but not a frame is superfluous and the reward is a masterful and poignent shared meditation on mournng.
The film went on to play in San Sebastian and Toronto Film Festivals. Isa The Match Factory sold the film to Janus for the USA. For Austria to Polyfilm, the Baltics to A-One Films Baltic, Benelux — September, Croatia — Kino Mediteran, Denmark — Camera, Estonia — A-One, Finland — Future, France — Diaphana, Germany — Rapid Eye Movies, Italy — Tucker, Japan producer Bitters End, Norway — Arthaus, Poland — Gutek, Singapore — Lighthouse, Slovenia and Ex-Yugoslavia—Demiurg-Cvetka Flakus, Spain — Elastica, Sweden- Njuta, Switzerland — Sister, Taiwan — Andrews, Turkey — Mars, UK — Modern.
- 5/8/2022
- by Sydney
- Sydney's Buzz
(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)
The Movie: "Drive My Car"
Where You Can Stream It: HBO Max
The Pitch: Actor and theater director Yusuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima) and his wife Oto (Reika Kirishima), a screenwriter, appear to be the perfect couple, albeit one with a strange post-coital ritual. After they have sex, Oto enters a trance-like state and recounts surreal, seedy stories to her husband, which he'll then repeat back to her in the morning for her screenplays....
The post The Daily Stream: Drive My Car is a Mesmerizing Tribute to the Healing Power of Art appeared first on /Film.
The Movie: "Drive My Car"
Where You Can Stream It: HBO Max
The Pitch: Actor and theater director Yusuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima) and his wife Oto (Reika Kirishima), a screenwriter, appear to be the perfect couple, albeit one with a strange post-coital ritual. After they have sex, Oto enters a trance-like state and recounts surreal, seedy stories to her husband, which he'll then repeat back to her in the morning for her screenplays....
The post The Daily Stream: Drive My Car is a Mesmerizing Tribute to the Healing Power of Art appeared first on /Film.
- 3/2/2022
- by Hoai-Tran Bui
- Slash Film
Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Haruki Murakami adaptation “Drive My Car” has been a red hot awards season favorite ever since it debuted at Cannes and won three top prizes there. The film, besides collecting a clutch of awards around the world, is up for four Oscars and three BAFTAs. Eve Gabereau, a stalwart of the U.K./Ireland independent distribution scene, who co-founded and ran leading distribution company Soda Pictures for 15 years and founded Modern Films, shares the film’s journey with Variety.
I first saw “Drive My Car” in competition at Cannes in July 2021. I knew about it beforehand because I have worked closely with the sales agency The Match Factory over the years and follow all their films. I am also a Japanophile and an avid Murakami fan so this seemed a natural fit for Modern Films, even before I saw it. Even so, I was totally blown away...
I first saw “Drive My Car” in competition at Cannes in July 2021. I knew about it beforehand because I have worked closely with the sales agency The Match Factory over the years and follow all their films. I am also a Japanophile and an avid Murakami fan so this seemed a natural fit for Modern Films, even before I saw it. Even so, I was totally blown away...
- 3/2/2022
- by Eve Gabereau
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Warnermedia OneFifty has acquired the Japanese road drama Drive My Car to premiere on HBO Max on March 2, 2022.
The film is directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi who also co-wrote the screenplay with Takamasa Oe, adapted from the short story of the same name by Haruki Murakami. It tells the of a renowned stage actor and director, Yūsuke Kafukuwho (Hidetoshi Nishijima), who connects with a taciturn young woman assigned to chauffeur him in his beloved red Saab 900.
The Sideshow/Janus Films project also stars Tōko Miura, Masaki Okada, Reika Kirishima, Park Yoo-rim, Satoko Abe, Jin Dae-yeon, and Sonia Yuan.
Drive My Car recently received Academy Award Nominations in four categories: Best Picture, Directing, International Feature Film, and Adapted Screenplay. It is the first Japanese film ever to be nominated for Best Picture.
Thanks to all the Oscar love, the film has seen an uptick in interest at the box office. The...
The film is directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi who also co-wrote the screenplay with Takamasa Oe, adapted from the short story of the same name by Haruki Murakami. It tells the of a renowned stage actor and director, Yūsuke Kafukuwho (Hidetoshi Nishijima), who connects with a taciturn young woman assigned to chauffeur him in his beloved red Saab 900.
The Sideshow/Janus Films project also stars Tōko Miura, Masaki Okada, Reika Kirishima, Park Yoo-rim, Satoko Abe, Jin Dae-yeon, and Sonia Yuan.
Drive My Car recently received Academy Award Nominations in four categories: Best Picture, Directing, International Feature Film, and Adapted Screenplay. It is the first Japanese film ever to be nominated for Best Picture.
Thanks to all the Oscar love, the film has seen an uptick in interest at the box office. The...
- 2/14/2022
- by Rosy Cordero
- Deadline Film + TV
by Timothy Lyons
Ryûsuke Hamaguchi and actress Reika Kirishima at Cannes this past summer with "Drive My Car"
One of the more pleasant surprises of this year’s Academy Award nominations announcement was the shortlisting of Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s subtly masterful Drive My Car in Best Picture. In addition to this mention, Hamaguchi himself was nominated for Director and Adapted Screenplay (along with co-writer Takamasa Oe) and the film received an easily predicted nod in International Feature. While there seemed to be enough of a groundswell of support for the film to break into the general field, its inclusion in the top race remains a largely unexpected and refreshingly left-of-center occurrence. Despite now being the very first Japanese film nominated for Best Picture, Drive My Car is not the first to be recognised overall. It is also not the first to find favor beyond the usually ghettoized International Feature category.
Ryûsuke Hamaguchi and actress Reika Kirishima at Cannes this past summer with "Drive My Car"
One of the more pleasant surprises of this year’s Academy Award nominations announcement was the shortlisting of Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s subtly masterful Drive My Car in Best Picture. In addition to this mention, Hamaguchi himself was nominated for Director and Adapted Screenplay (along with co-writer Takamasa Oe) and the film received an easily predicted nod in International Feature. While there seemed to be enough of a groundswell of support for the film to break into the general field, its inclusion in the top race remains a largely unexpected and refreshingly left-of-center occurrence. Despite now being the very first Japanese film nominated for Best Picture, Drive My Car is not the first to be recognised overall. It is also not the first to find favor beyond the usually ghettoized International Feature category.
- 2/12/2022
- by Timothy Lyons
- FilmExperience
Drive My Car Review — Drive My Car (2021) Film Review, a movie directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi and starring Hidetoshi Nishijima, Toko Miura, Reika Kirishima, Masaki Okada, Perry Dizon, Ahn Hwitae, Sonia Yuan and Satoko Abe. Director Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s powerful drama, Drive My Car, offers its audience a deep, dramatically captivating story line and, through [...]
Continue reading: Film Review: Drive My Car (2021): A Powerful Film About Learning to Let Go of the Past...
Continue reading: Film Review: Drive My Car (2021): A Powerful Film About Learning to Let Go of the Past...
- 2/6/2022
- by Thomas Duffy
- Film-Book
A tender, meditative drama that declares Ryusuke Hamaguchi a new master of Japanese cinema
Best films of 2021: the listMore on the best culture of 2021
In the year we got a ninth Fast and Furious movie, Japanese director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi gave us something at the very opposite end of the petrolhead scale with Drive My Car. You could call it Slow and Circuitous, but that would be doing his monumental, highly moving meditation on how life, art and desire intertwine a huge disservice. Vast in philosophical scope but intimate; beautifully controlled but pulsing with erotic undercurrents, it marks Hamaguchi’s emergence as a new cinematic master.
Liberally adapted from Haruki Murakami’s short story, it sees avant garde theatre director Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima) mourning the death of his wife Oto (Reika Kirishima) – whose infidelity he had just discovered. Accepting an assignment to direct a new multilingual production of Uncle Vanya in Hiroshima,...
Best films of 2021: the listMore on the best culture of 2021
In the year we got a ninth Fast and Furious movie, Japanese director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi gave us something at the very opposite end of the petrolhead scale with Drive My Car. You could call it Slow and Circuitous, but that would be doing his monumental, highly moving meditation on how life, art and desire intertwine a huge disservice. Vast in philosophical scope but intimate; beautifully controlled but pulsing with erotic undercurrents, it marks Hamaguchi’s emergence as a new cinematic master.
Liberally adapted from Haruki Murakami’s short story, it sees avant garde theatre director Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima) mourning the death of his wife Oto (Reika Kirishima) – whose infidelity he had just discovered. Accepting an assignment to direct a new multilingual production of Uncle Vanya in Hiroshima,...
- 12/14/2021
- by Phil Hoad
- The Guardian - Film News
Yûsuke (Hidetoshi Nishijima) loves his car. It’s an old model, a right hand drive vehicle in a country where everyone drives on the left, and he takes great care of it. It worries him that his wife, the playwright Oto (Reika Kirishima), doesn’t pay enough attention to the road when she’s behind the wheel. When he moves to a small island to take up a residency, directing Uncle Vanya, he is appalled to hear that for insurance reasons he must allow a professional driver, 23-year-old Misaki (Tôko Miura), to drive it for him, but she will surprise him – in a lot of ways.
Between the film’s opening and Yûsuke’s first meeting with Misaki, a good deal happens. Several years, and almost half an hour of viewing time, elapse before we see the opening credits. It’s difficult to say too much about this without spoilers,...
Between the film’s opening and Yûsuke’s first meeting with Misaki, a good deal happens. Several years, and almost half an hour of viewing time, elapse before we see the opening credits. It’s difficult to say too much about this without spoilers,...
- 12/7/2021
- by Jennie Kermode
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
All through our chat, Ryusuke Hamaguchi stares at me as if to make sure I get all that he’s saying. The Japanese director understands English well, but doesn’t feel comfortable speaking it; in the Cannes hotel we met at, an interpreter sits between us, and I cannot help but think there’s a curious parallel between the translation barriers we’re wrestling with and his monumental, luminous Drive My Car. Monumental in size, luminous in touch. Clocking at three hours, it is based on a short story of the same name by Haruki Murakami, which English speakers can find in the anthology Men without Women. In the film, Yusuke (Hidetoshi Nishijima), a theatre actor and director, travels to Hiroshima to stage Chekhov’s play Uncle Vanya. Two years have passed since the death of his wife Oto, a TV screenwriter who would routinely fall into a writing trance after sex.
- 11/19/2021
- MUBI
The much anticipated and hyped Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Drive My Car” is an adaptation and extension of Murakami’s short story of the same title from the 2014 collection “Men Without Women”. It comes shortly after “Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy” and, although a very different film, it also resumes and develops its final episode’s concept, of performing and role-playing as a way people can connect with their true feelings.
“Drive My Car” is screening at the 62nd Thessaloniki International Film Festival
A 40-minute-long first act, set two years before the main story, introduces the film. Yusuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima) and Oto Kafuku (Reika Kirishima) are a married couple; he is a renown theatre actor who likes rehearsing Checkov’s Uncle Vanja lines with the help of his wife’s voice on a tape, while driving his beloved vintage red Saab 900, and she is a scriptwriter with an unusual creative process.
“Drive My Car” is screening at the 62nd Thessaloniki International Film Festival
A 40-minute-long first act, set two years before the main story, introduces the film. Yusuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima) and Oto Kafuku (Reika Kirishima) are a married couple; he is a renown theatre actor who likes rehearsing Checkov’s Uncle Vanja lines with the help of his wife’s voice on a tape, while driving his beloved vintage red Saab 900, and she is a scriptwriter with an unusual creative process.
- 11/9/2021
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
“Mothering Sunday,” a steamy British drama starring Odessa Young, Josh O’Connor and Olivia Colman, will have its U.S. premiere as the centerpiece film at the Hamptons International Film Festival.
The annual event, running from Oct. 7 through Oct. 13, will also screen Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch,” Clint Bentley’s “Jockey,” Penny Lane’s “Listening to Kenny G” and Rachel Fleit’s “Introducing, Selma Blair.”
“Every year we work to bring our audiences out east a diverse and thoughtful selection of films that excite and expand perspectives. We look forward to welcoming this year’s films and filmmakers to the 29th edition,” said Anne Chaisson, executive director of HamptonsFilm. “We are overjoyed to once again be bringing our community together in celebration of some of the year’s most incredible films.”
As previously announced, The Hamptons International Film Festival will host Celine Sciamma’s “Petite Maman,” Julie Cohen and Betsy West’s documentary “Julia,...
The annual event, running from Oct. 7 through Oct. 13, will also screen Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch,” Clint Bentley’s “Jockey,” Penny Lane’s “Listening to Kenny G” and Rachel Fleit’s “Introducing, Selma Blair.”
“Every year we work to bring our audiences out east a diverse and thoughtful selection of films that excite and expand perspectives. We look forward to welcoming this year’s films and filmmakers to the 29th edition,” said Anne Chaisson, executive director of HamptonsFilm. “We are overjoyed to once again be bringing our community together in celebration of some of the year’s most incredible films.”
As previously announced, The Hamptons International Film Festival will host Celine Sciamma’s “Petite Maman,” Julie Cohen and Betsy West’s documentary “Julia,...
- 9/1/2021
- by Rebecca Rubin
- Variety Film + TV
Yusuke (Hidetoshi Nishijima) is a stage actor and director. He seems to be in a happy marriage with his wife Fukaku (Reika Kirishima), who is a playwright, but suddenly she disappears, leaving behind a secret. Two years later, Yusuke takes a job as a director of a cinema festival. There, he meets his chauffeur Misaki (Toko Miura), who largely keeps to herself. After spending some time with Misaki, Yusuke learns to face many things in his life that he has ignored.
- 8/31/2021
- by Don Anelli
- AsianMoviePulse
Ryûsuke Hamaguchi reaches a new grandeur with this engrossing adaptation about a theatre director grappling with Chekhov and his wife’s infidelity
Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s mysterious and beautiful new film is inspired by Haruki Murakami’s short story of the same name – and that title, like Murakami’s Norwegian Wood, is designed to tease us with the shiny wistfulness of a Beatles lyric. Hamaguchi’s previous pictures Asako I and II and Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy were about the enigma of identity, the theatrical role play involved in all social interaction and erotic rapture of intimacy. Drive My Car is about all this and more; where once Hamaguchi’s film-making language had seemed to me at the level of jeu d’esprit, now it ascends to something with passion and even a kind of grandeur. It is a film about the link between confession, creativity and sexuality and the...
Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s mysterious and beautiful new film is inspired by Haruki Murakami’s short story of the same name – and that title, like Murakami’s Norwegian Wood, is designed to tease us with the shiny wistfulness of a Beatles lyric. Hamaguchi’s previous pictures Asako I and II and Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy were about the enigma of identity, the theatrical role play involved in all social interaction and erotic rapture of intimacy. Drive My Car is about all this and more; where once Hamaguchi’s film-making language had seemed to me at the level of jeu d’esprit, now it ascends to something with passion and even a kind of grandeur. It is a film about the link between confession, creativity and sexuality and the...
- 7/14/2021
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
An adaptation from the short story of the same name by Haruki Murakami from his bestselling collection ‘Men Without Women’, Drive My Car is the latest melodrama from Japanese up-and-comer Ryûsuke Hamaguchi. Yet more epic than his previous work – and with a sizable runtime just shy of three hours – it’s his biggest-scale film to date. And though it has plenty of flair, Drive My Car never quite justifies its alienated approach to Murakami’s work.
Three years after Lee Chang Dong’s Burning rocked the festival circuit with its adventurous adaptation of Murakami’s nineties short story ‘Barn Burning’, Drive My Car couldn’t be more different in bringing to life what is admittedly a tonally opposed story. Working closely and overtly within the ‘Men Without Women’ brief, Drive My Car follows successful stage actor and director Yûsuke Kafuku (Hadetoshi Nishijima) as he attempts to adapt Chekhov’s Uncle...
Three years after Lee Chang Dong’s Burning rocked the festival circuit with its adventurous adaptation of Murakami’s nineties short story ‘Barn Burning’, Drive My Car couldn’t be more different in bringing to life what is admittedly a tonally opposed story. Working closely and overtly within the ‘Men Without Women’ brief, Drive My Car follows successful stage actor and director Yûsuke Kafuku (Hadetoshi Nishijima) as he attempts to adapt Chekhov’s Uncle...
- 7/14/2021
- by Adam Solomons
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
It seemed inevitable that Haruki Murakami’s prose would find a way into the films of Ryusuke Hamaguchi. The director returns with Drive My Car, based on Murakami’s novella of the same name—the story of a writer who finds solace in the company of the young woman driving his car. It’s a graceful, aching film that sculpts and stretches Murakami’s story into an enchanting three-hour epic about trauma and mourning, shared solitude, and the possibility of moving on. The narrative also doubles as a lovely ode to the car itself, and the strange ways that people open up when cocooned inside them.
Premiering in Cannes, it is Hamaguchi’s second film to feature in a major festival in 2021 after Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy scooped Berlin’s Silver Bear. Both were shot around the pandemic, though it was only during delays to the much larger production...
Premiering in Cannes, it is Hamaguchi’s second film to feature in a major festival in 2021 after Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy scooped Berlin’s Silver Bear. Both were shot around the pandemic, though it was only during delays to the much larger production...
- 7/13/2021
- by Rory O'Connor
- The Film Stage
Throughout his short career, Japanese director Ryusuke Hamaguchi has often used literary touches to track the passage of time. His 317-minute debut, “Happy Hour” sprawled out like a novel, while his recent Berlin winner “Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy” split the subject into an anthology.
He’s even evoked such interests with his film’s titles, naming his 2018 Cannes competition entry “Asako I and II” to underscore the fact that we can be wholly different people at different points in our lives.
And so when “Drive My Car,” which premiered on Sunday in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, rolls its opening credits a full 40 minutes into the three-hour film, you get the sense that Hamaguchi is playing with the idea of prologues, of elements that sit just beyond a narrative arc that shades everything that follows. It’s a wonderful impulse that works beautifully in the film — perhaps a little too beautifully,...
He’s even evoked such interests with his film’s titles, naming his 2018 Cannes competition entry “Asako I and II” to underscore the fact that we can be wholly different people at different points in our lives.
And so when “Drive My Car,” which premiered on Sunday in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, rolls its opening credits a full 40 minutes into the three-hour film, you get the sense that Hamaguchi is playing with the idea of prologues, of elements that sit just beyond a narrative arc that shades everything that follows. It’s a wonderful impulse that works beautifully in the film — perhaps a little too beautifully,...
- 7/11/2021
- by Ben Croll
- The Wrap
Adapted by “Happy Hour” and “Asako I & II” auteur Ryûsuke Hamaguchi from a short story by Haruki Murakami, “Drive My Car” is a head-on collision between an emerging filmmaker fascinated by the interior lives of women, and a famous author who… is not. But these two wildly disparate storytellers aren’t the only people vying for control of the wheel in this beguiling three-hour gem, as a third major figure is soon introduced to help steer them in the same direction: legendary playwright Anton Chekhov.
And why not? If the brief and uneven history of Murakami adaptations has taught us anything, it’s that the sensually aloof solipsism of his writing is best interpreted by people who aren’t afraid to impose their own will upon it. That’s what Lee Chang-dong did with “Burning,” and that’s what Hamaguchi does here. The result is — an intimate stage whisper...
And why not? If the brief and uneven history of Murakami adaptations has taught us anything, it’s that the sensually aloof solipsism of his writing is best interpreted by people who aren’t afraid to impose their own will upon it. That’s what Lee Chang-dong did with “Burning,” and that’s what Hamaguchi does here. The result is — an intimate stage whisper...
- 7/11/2021
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Haruki Murakami’s short story “Drive My Car” is a sleek, streamlined slip of a thing that nonetheless, in the author’s signature style, packs an awful lot into its lean sentences. It’s a grief-stricken marriage story enfolded in a corrupted friendship study, related in turn via a separate tale of odd-couple companionship, all told in fewer than 40 pages. On the face of it, one might question the wisdom of turning such a precisely worked miniature into a three-hour movie, but Japanese director Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s deft, wise, whisper-soft adaptation of “Drive My Car” never feels like an overextension of its delicate material. Instead, it pursues a kind of cinematic stillness to match Murakami’s plain, serene prose, and takes things suitably slow — this is the kind of film where the opening credits arrive 40 minutes in — as it ponders just how much time can heal all wounds.
The subtly...
The subtly...
- 7/11/2021
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
With Happy Hour and Asako I & II director Ryūsuke Hamaguchi’s stellar triptych Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy picked up for a U.S. release by Film Movement, we’re now looking to see when his second film of 2021, the Haruki Murakami adaptation Drive My Car, will premiere and get acquired. With rumors of a 170-minute runtime, the first teaser has now arrived.
Starring Hidetoshi Nishijima, Toko Miura, Masaki Okada, and Reika Kirishima, it was reported the story follows a stage actor and director happily married to his playwright wife. Then one day the wife disappears and, two years later, the hero is appointed the director of a theater festival in Hiroshima. There he is assigned a mostly silent young woman chauffeur, an encounter with more significance than he at first expects.
With a Japanese release planned for this summer, we imagine it may time up with a festival debut at Cannes.
Starring Hidetoshi Nishijima, Toko Miura, Masaki Okada, and Reika Kirishima, it was reported the story follows a stage actor and director happily married to his playwright wife. Then one day the wife disappears and, two years later, the hero is appointed the director of a theater festival in Hiroshima. There he is assigned a mostly silent young woman chauffeur, an encounter with more significance than he at first expects.
With a Japanese release planned for this summer, we imagine it may time up with a festival debut at Cannes.
- 5/12/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Following up the stellar Happy Hour and Asako I & II, Ryūsuke Hamaguchi’s streak continued last month with the premiere of his latest film, the triptych Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy. Meant to be a small-scale project filmed while he prepared his next film, we’re hoping U.S. distribution for his Berlinale premiere arrives soon, but in the meantime, we have the first look at his second feature of 2021.
Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car, staring Hidetoshi Nishijima, Toko Miura, Masaki Okada, and Reika Kirishima, is adapted from Haruki Murakami’s story, first published in the English-language anthology Men Without Women. With the film now completed, it was reported the story follows a stage actor and director happily married to his playwright wife. Then one day the wife disappears and, two years later, the hero is appointed the director of a theater festival in Hiroshima. There he is assigned a mostly silent young woman chauffeur,...
Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car, staring Hidetoshi Nishijima, Toko Miura, Masaki Okada, and Reika Kirishima, is adapted from Haruki Murakami’s story, first published in the English-language anthology Men Without Women. With the film now completed, it was reported the story follows a stage actor and director happily married to his playwright wife. Then one day the wife disappears and, two years later, the hero is appointed the director of a theater festival in Hiroshima. There he is assigned a mostly silent young woman chauffeur,...
- 4/12/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Like clockwork (which is to say every three years) we get a new Dardenne brothers movie. If it’s been two since Young Ahmed and we shouldn’t expect an announced film to arrive for another year… we’re not here for basic arithmetic, so let’s just get to the point: Cineuropa report the duo just earned funding, via the Wallonia-Brussels Federation Film and Audiovisual Centre’s Film Selection Committee, for Tori et Lokita, which “will look back on the friendship uniting two youngsters who have travelled alone from Africa and find themselves contending with the cruel conditions of their exile in Belgium.”
Per Dardenne standard, “new faces” will be at the center of casting that, once complete, makes way for a summer shoot. Expect this at Cannes 2022 with an award to follow.
It was also noted last week that Ryūsuke Hamaguchi will follow his fantastic Asako I & II...
Per Dardenne standard, “new faces” will be at the center of casting that, once complete, makes way for a summer shoot. Expect this at Cannes 2022 with an award to follow.
It was also noted last week that Ryūsuke Hamaguchi will follow his fantastic Asako I & II...
- 2/2/2021
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Norwegian Wood
Directed by Anh Hung Tran
Written by Anh Hung Tran, from the novel by Haruki Murakami
Japan, 2010
Haruki Murakami’s dense novel Norwegian Wood, which derives its title from an enigmatic Beatles song, has been celebrated around the world since its publication some years ago. Typically, the road to adapting any novel to the silver screen is paved with various trappings which, if mishandled, will earn the filmmakers the scorn of movie goers hoping to see faithful representations of their favourite stories. Given Norwegian Wood‘s near universal praise of the highest order, anyone willing to throw themselves into the process of translating that specific piece of literature from page to screen was taking a risk, regardless of how successful already said screenplay writer and director were, even acclaimed Vietnamese filmmaker Anh Hung Tran, known to most for for Scent of the Green Papaya, winner of the Caméra...
Directed by Anh Hung Tran
Written by Anh Hung Tran, from the novel by Haruki Murakami
Japan, 2010
Haruki Murakami’s dense novel Norwegian Wood, which derives its title from an enigmatic Beatles song, has been celebrated around the world since its publication some years ago. Typically, the road to adapting any novel to the silver screen is paved with various trappings which, if mishandled, will earn the filmmakers the scorn of movie goers hoping to see faithful representations of their favourite stories. Given Norwegian Wood‘s near universal praise of the highest order, anyone willing to throw themselves into the process of translating that specific piece of literature from page to screen was taking a risk, regardless of how successful already said screenplay writer and director were, even acclaimed Vietnamese filmmaker Anh Hung Tran, known to most for for Scent of the Green Papaya, winner of the Caméra...
- 2/1/2012
- by Edgar Chaput
- SoundOnSight
Chicago – Tran Anh Hung’s adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s 1987 novel has garnered a bevy of negative reactions from literary fans, and it’s easy to see why. Pivotal characters remain underdeveloped despite the film’s two-hour-plus running time. Grand gestures are made without any tangible motivation. And epic romances are explored only through a few lustful glances.
Rating: 2.5/5.0
With that being said, “Norwegian Wood” is still worth a look, primarily because the attractive young cast manages to transcend the heavy-handed script. Kenichi Matsuyama is somewhat of a wooden leading man, but he’s greatly aided by two leading ladies that bring out the best in him. “Babel” star Rinko Kikuchi once again delves into the wounded soul of a woman who’s lost the ability to connect with the outside world, while 21-year-old newcomer Kiko Mizuhara proves to be a real find.
Read Matt Fagerholm’s full review of...
Rating: 2.5/5.0
With that being said, “Norwegian Wood” is still worth a look, primarily because the attractive young cast manages to transcend the heavy-handed script. Kenichi Matsuyama is somewhat of a wooden leading man, but he’s greatly aided by two leading ladies that bring out the best in him. “Babel” star Rinko Kikuchi once again delves into the wounded soul of a woman who’s lost the ability to connect with the outside world, while 21-year-old newcomer Kiko Mizuhara proves to be a real find.
Read Matt Fagerholm’s full review of...
- 1/20/2012
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
"With his intuitive penchant for lingering, privileged sensations, Tran Anh Hung would seem to be an inspired choice to film Haruki Murakami's languid-erotic 1987 bestseller Norwegian Wood, where the eponymous Beatles anthem can have the effect of Proust's madeleine," writes Fernando F Croce in Slant. "When it does come, sung softly in English in a cottage in the pastoral outskirts of Tokyo, the tune quickly brings tears to the eyes of Naoko (Rinko Kikuchi), whose private anguish is momentarily alleviated and then unsettled by the pop song's wistful evocation of ephemeral affairs: 'And when I awoke, I was alone, this bird had flown…' With its gentle camera movements and wizardly cinematographer Mark Lee Ping Bin's amber light, the moment glows and shivers. It also illustrates, unfortunately, how Tran's adaptation works most effectively in such impressionistic glances and instants than as an emotional whole, where the swoony aesthetic comes to...
- 1/8/2012
- MUBI
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Directed By: Anh Hung Tran
Starring: Kenichi Matsuyama, Rinko Kikuchi, Kiko Mizuhara
Norwegian Wood is beautiful and affecting, even if it does nearly collapse under the weight of its own earnestness at times.
This is a vintage costume fest from the outset. The location is late 1960s Tokyo with fashion largely influenced by Western pop culture. The story is centred on adolescent relationship issues, a sort of love triangle consequent to the irreversible pain of loss. Virtually all of the characters are in their late teens-early twenties. Their clothes are a mix of hip-hugger pants, white Levis, pointed collar shirts, long line and short pleated skirts, sleeveless hostess dresses and bell bottom jeans. Costume designer Yen Khe Luguern instigates several changes, virtually a new outfit for each scene. These are inconsistent personalities,...
Directed By: Anh Hung Tran
Starring: Kenichi Matsuyama, Rinko Kikuchi, Kiko Mizuhara
Norwegian Wood is beautiful and affecting, even if it does nearly collapse under the weight of its own earnestness at times.
This is a vintage costume fest from the outset. The location is late 1960s Tokyo with fashion largely influenced by Western pop culture. The story is centred on adolescent relationship issues, a sort of love triangle consequent to the irreversible pain of loss. Virtually all of the characters are in their late teens-early twenties. Their clothes are a mix of hip-hugger pants, white Levis, pointed collar shirts, long line and short pleated skirts, sleeveless hostess dresses and bell bottom jeans. Costume designer Yen Khe Luguern instigates several changes, virtually a new outfit for each scene. These are inconsistent personalities,...
- 5/27/2011
- by Chris Laverty
- Clothes on Film
Time Gal, an arcade game released in 1985 by Japanese developer Taito (also responsible for Space Invaders) can almost be described as existing entirely to illustrate the morbid and inexplicable satisfaction of "dying" in a video game. It uses Full-Motion Video (Fmv) recorded to laserdisc and simple timed prompts as its mode of gameplay—as a scene plays, directional or attack cues briefly flash on the screen (up, left, right, etc.), and the player has to input the matching command quickly enough in order to avoid danger. Succeed, and the game is alerted to load the next sequential video clip. There are also different scenarios where the player is given a choice of several actions and must choose the single correct option in order to progress. Like Dragon's Lair (1983) before it, the entire game uses pre-drawn cel animation to give the illusion of a controllable cartoon, although in reality Time Gal...
- 9/22/2010
- MUBI
Brand new images have just arrived for several big name films that will be showing in and out of competition at this year's 67th Venice Film Festival including brand new looks at Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan, Julie Taymor's The Tempest, Robert Rodriguez's Machete, Anh Hung Tran's Norwegian Wood, Sofia Coppola's Somewhere and Ben Affleck's The Town.
The festival runs from September 1 - 11 and I only wish I was going to be in attendance as films such as Somewhere and The Tempest won't be crossing over and showing in Toronto. Not to mention, while I am excited for my first trip to Toronto this year, it wouldn't be half-bad hanging out in Venice, Italy. Nevertheless, let's get to the previews...
I've included one pic from each film directly below. You can click on the picture or the link to be taken to the full gallery,...
The festival runs from September 1 - 11 and I only wish I was going to be in attendance as films such as Somewhere and The Tempest won't be crossing over and showing in Toronto. Not to mention, while I am excited for my first trip to Toronto this year, it wouldn't be half-bad hanging out in Venice, Italy. Nevertheless, let's get to the previews...
I've included one pic from each film directly below. You can click on the picture or the link to be taken to the full gallery,...
- 8/26/2010
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Are you guys ready for the oldest film festival in the world? Yeah, sure you are! Who’s crazy enough to miss all that glamour, great movies, and well-known faces? Guess nobody!
This year’s Venice Film Festival runs from September 1- 11th and some great titles will compete for Leone d’Oro, or if you prefer Golden Lion, indeed!
Just in case you don’t trust us, check out a list of all the films playing in competition:
In Competition
Black Swan, Opening Night Film (dir. Darren Aronofsky – U.S.) Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Barbara Hershey, Winona Ryder
La Pecora Nera, (dir. Ascanio Celestini – Italy) Ascanio Celestini, Giorgio Tirabassi, Maya Sansa
Somewhere, (dir. Sofia Coppola – U.S.) Stephen Dorff, Elle Fanning, Benicio Del Toro, Michelle Monaghan, Laura Chiatti, Simona Ventura
Happy Few, (dir. Antony Cordier – France) Marina Fois, Elodie Bouchez, Roschdy Zem, Nicolas Duvauchelle
The Solitude of Prime Numbers,...
This year’s Venice Film Festival runs from September 1- 11th and some great titles will compete for Leone d’Oro, or if you prefer Golden Lion, indeed!
Just in case you don’t trust us, check out a list of all the films playing in competition:
In Competition
Black Swan, Opening Night Film (dir. Darren Aronofsky – U.S.) Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Barbara Hershey, Winona Ryder
La Pecora Nera, (dir. Ascanio Celestini – Italy) Ascanio Celestini, Giorgio Tirabassi, Maya Sansa
Somewhere, (dir. Sofia Coppola – U.S.) Stephen Dorff, Elle Fanning, Benicio Del Toro, Michelle Monaghan, Laura Chiatti, Simona Ventura
Happy Few, (dir. Antony Cordier – France) Marina Fois, Elodie Bouchez, Roschdy Zem, Nicolas Duvauchelle
The Solitude of Prime Numbers,...
- 7/30/2010
- by Fiona
- Filmofilia
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