When writer-director Ryusuke Hamaguchi first saw the red Saab 900 Turbo at the center of his award-winning film Drive My Car, he knew it was him. Over thirty years old and in immaculate condition, the car was perfect. It had to be – he would be spending a lot of time indoors. “It almost feels like the best casting I’ve ever done,” Hamaguchi recalled in a video interview with CNN.
While the car received no acting awards, Hamaguchi’s 2021 film garnered four Oscar nominations, including Japan’s first for Best Picture.
Hamaguchi and co-writer Takamasa Oe adapted “Drive My Car” from a short story of the same name by famous Japanese author Haruki Murakami. Her extended version follows actor and theater director Yusuke Kafuku, played by Hidetoshi Nishijima, as he struggles with the unexpected death of his wife Oto (Reika Kirishima).
Kafuku accepts an offer to direct a multilingual stage production of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya in Hiroshima, where he meets Misaki Watari (Toko Miura), a woman hired to drive him around in his beloved Saab. As Kafuku confronts the haunting truths of his past, the film explores love, loss and forgiveness and explores how people communicate with others and themselves.
Already a BAFTA winner, Drive My Car has topped several critics’ year-end lists. Ahead of the March 27 Academy Awards, CNN caught up with Hamaguchi to learn more about his film and the ideas he’s pursuing in his work.
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
CNN: First of all, congratulations on the Oscar nominations. How do you feel about taking Japan’s first place in the Best Picture category?
Hamaguchi: Of course I’m happy. I never expected it. I think the fact that non-English language films can be nominated in this way really reassures me that things are changing and that we are part of that change.
I wanted to ask about the beautiful red Saab 900 from the movie. Why the red color? And what became of it?
In (Haruki Murakami’s) original short story, it was a yellow Saab convertible. I knew from the start that driving a convertible would not be feasible because noise like the wind would make it difficult. But we actually looked at some yellow Saabs. The coordinator in charge of arranging film vehicles arrived in his red Saab and I remember thinking, “Wow, what a good looking car.” When I found out it was a Saab 900 I figured it wouldn’t be too far from the original. I wanted the car to appear in the film as I saw it. What happened to the car, it belongs to the coordinator, so he’s still driving around.
Hidetoshi Nishijima and Toko Miura as Yusuke Kafuku and Misaki Watari alongside the red Saab 900 Turbo in Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car. “I’ve always felt that it’s easy to have a very intimate conversation in a car,” the director tells CNN. Credit: Courtesy of Sideshow and Janus Films
From what I understand, your rehearsal process is similar to what Kafuku and his cast see preparing for the play. Can you explain why you prepare your actors this way?
When actors say or do what they don’t normally do when playing characters, the body feels strange and it doesn’t move as smoothly as it normally does. “Hon-yomi” (script reading) is an exercise in saying words that the person would not normally say. I asked my actors to repeat their lines over and over again, literally without emotion. Eventually your mouth and whole body will get used to saying the words and learn things like where to breathe. As this happens, I can also begin to feel a shift in the actors’ voices as their bodies relax into the words. Once I hear their voices become clear, I think we’re ready to shoot.
The actors appearing in the play use their native languages, including Japanese, Korean, Mandarin and others. Was there a message you wanted to convey with it?
The truth is that it contains no message. Of course, words have meaning, but the most important part of our communication is body language and the texture of the voice. There’s a lot of information there, and if there’s a deception, the audience will know. We need to encourage mutual reactions among actors. I thought it would be easier when things like this happened if we broke the cycle of exchanges based on the meaning of each other’s language – you won’t be able to perform if you’re not careful.
Park Yurim plays Lee Yoon-a, an actor in Kafuku’s stage production who communicates in Korean Sign Language. Can you explain how you used this character and Park’s performance to explore the discrepancies between what a character is saying and what he is feeling?
I became interested in sign language when I was invited to a film festival for the deaf, where they communicated in sign language. I really felt like an outsider. I also realized that sign language is a much more physical and expressive language than I thought. In order to sign each other, they have to look closely at the other person because they can’t understand them unless they’re looking. I remember being really watched there, and I felt like when someone looks at me that deeply, it means that if I lie, they could see through my lie.
I think that using sign language and being open to express yourself are very closely related. When I decided to take on this multilingual piece, I didn’t want to use sign language as a language for people with disabilities; I really just wanted to use sign language as another language. I was looking for someone for this role and came across Park Yurim and thought she was such a wonderful actress.
“Drive My Car” has a multilingual cast. Park Yurim plays Lee Yoon-a, an actor in Kafuku’s stage production of Uncle Vanya, who communicates in Korean Sign Language. Credit: Courtesy of Sideshow and Janus Films
So much of the plight of the characters in Drive My Car and Uncle Vanya is their inability to communicate. Some of this stems from their fear of not really being heard. Do you think we could be better listeners?
You know, I really believe in it. I really think about how much better the world would be if everyone became good listeners. I was convinced by the interviews I conducted in my documentaries (the “Tohoku Trilogy” made after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami) that this is true of everyone’s life. Having a life of your own means you have something inside you that you want to express, and so much of it is rarely heard. I’m always amazed at the expressiveness that breaks out when I’m on the listener’s side. But then I guess I have to listen to myself too. It’s not just about listening to others, but also to the parts of ourselves that we can’t change. I don’t think it’s a good thing if we completely dismiss the uneasiness that arises within ourselves. I feel like I need to get as much openness out of myself and others as possible. I’m sure if we could do that, the world would be a little better off.
Drive My Car and your other 2021 film Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy share a common theme of lies and deception — and the ins and outs of perpetuating a fiction, whether to convince other people or ourselves. One of Kafuku’s actors, Koshi Takatsuki (Masaki Okada), admits that he feels “empty” inside, which is obvious considering he’s an actor. Do you wish we had to do less to get by in life?
I don’t necessarily think we shouldn’t perform or lie. I think it’s inevitable to some degree that we live like this. I mean we all have desires don’t we? A short-term way to fulfill these desires could be lying. At the same time, I think we all know that lies are very fragile. This is because there is a certain gravity to the truth and people are drawn to it. The film shows that. I think that sense of truth coming into our perspective can almost be viewed as failure or loss, but at the same time I think there’s something very beautiful about when that truth really lands. I am very interested in this moment.
“Drive My Car” is nominated for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director and Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards on March 27.