I first heard about Drive My Car when my parents told me about an article they read about it. I thought it sounded nice but at first wasn’t so gung-ho about seeing it. Then my aunt told me she fell asleep through it because it was such a long movie, so I wasn’t sure if I wanted to see it. But I’m glad I did see the film anyway, because it is truly a deep film. It does require patience to get through the movie but it is totally worth it. I definitely recommend if you can reading the short story by Haruki Murakami first. The story is from a collection of stories he wrote called Men Without Women, and while I haven’t read the entire book I really loved reading the story “Drive My Car.” Honestly, I don’t know how to describe Murakami’s writing. I’ve read The Wind Up Bird Chronicle; After the Quake, another of his short story collections; 1Q84 and now I am reading a novel he wrote in 2017 called Killing Commendatore. The books are pretty intense and it definitely takes patience to read his works, especially 1Q84, which is more than 1,000 pages long. But they dive into very deep human issues, and each of the characters you meet in his writings are so complex in their own unique ways. I really love reading the philosopher Daisaku Ikeda’s writings on the importance of literature because he says that reading literature gives us insight into the human condition. Reading Murakami’s works showed me how complex human life is because the characters find themselves in various situations that would be fantasies in real life.
The film Drive My Car opens up with the protagonist, Yusuke Kafuku and his wife, Oto, having sex. She is telling him this really wild story and he listens to her tell the story (my description of the story she tells wouldn’t do it justice. Also, At first I didn’t even know that the opening credits hadn’t rolled until they started rolling 40 minutes into the film, and I thought, Dang that was the opening. Anyway, back to the plot.) They seem to have the perfect life together, but then when he comes home one day he finds that his wife is having sex with another man named Koji Takatsuki. Still he continues to stay faithful to her even after she slept with another man. He is driving his car one day and then gets into an accident. He and Oto go to the doctor and the doctor tells him the accident messed up his eyesight and to take eye drops for glaucoma or else he will lose his eyesight. Later on, Yusuke goes into the living room and finds Oto dead. The rest of the film is about how he handles her death. He takes on a position as a playwright-in-residence in another city and the people in charge of the residency program tell him he needs a driver because it’s their policy (they add that one time one of their artists got into a bad accident and so they made it a rule that any artist in residence needs someone to drive them.) They hire an introverted young woman named Misaki Watari to drive him, and at first Yusuke refuses but Misaki refuses to let him drive and has him get in the car so she can go on a test drive in his car. She doesn’t speak for most or any of the drive, but she lets him listen to his tape to prepare for the Anton Chekhov play he is in charge of called Uncle Vanya.
The film also navigates the challenges that Yusuke faces as a playwright. He auditions different people for the roles in the play, and it’s awkward because one of the people trying out for the play is Koji, the man who slept with Yusuke’s wife Oto. The movie also navigates how Yusuke confronts Koji about sleeping with his wife, and how Koji also misses her instead of just seeing her as just another woman to have sex with. During rehearsals for the play, Yusuke is harder on Koji than he is on the other actors because of their shared history with Oto and Koji always initiates these conversations about Oto because both of them are processing their grief at losing her. However, Koji has his own complicated history because he was framed for a variety of crimes, including sleeping with an underage woman. He gets arrested when, while at the bar with Yusuke, he beats up a stranger who took a picture of him. At first I didn’t understand why the person was taking a picture of him, but then I remembered Koji got framed for something.
One scene that was really poignant to me and my parents were the scenes where one of the actors, Lee Yoon-A, speaks in Korean sign language. After getting really excited for CODA, which is a film in American sign language, it really gave me hope to see someone who spoke sign language being included in the play. Her audition was incredible and moving and it was the first time for me seeing a play where the language was communicated in sign language. Normally the plays I see are in English (or if it’s an opera, in Italian, German or French). There is a beautiful scene where the casting judge working with Yusuke takes him and Misaki to his home, and he reveals that Lee Yoon-A is his wife and that he learned sign language because they were together. The dinner scene where Lee communicates with her husband, Yusuke and Misaki is very beautiful and is an every day conversation but was just so profound and heartfelt.
Misaki doesn’t talk much during the film and she keeps to herself, but she has a keen sense of empathy and relates well to Yusuke, and ultimately helps him process his grief over losing his wife. She can relate because she lost her mother at a young age, and her mother was abusive but she taught Misaki how to be a good driver so she carried this skill with her throughout her life. After watching the film I had a lot of respect for Uber drivers. I know that sounds random but watching this film made me think about all the Uber drivers who drove me when I went to L.A. for vacation, and one person was super quiet but they were trying to get through L.A. traffic. At first I was put off by the driver not engaging me in conversation but at least I had my book on hand to read during the drive so that was nice. The film also gave me a new appreciation and outlook on driving in general. It’s an everyday activity that people like myself do, but lately this week while driving to work I started thinking a lot about life and death, and I started chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo while driving and it helped me a lot with my anxiety. I’ve realized in the few years I’ve been driving myself to work that driving can actually be a chance for self-reflection. Of course, I have to concentrate while I drive so I need to pay attention to the road but I still find myself contemplating a lot about the meaning of life when I drive. Kind of like the Saturday Night Live skit where Jim Carrey parodies Matthew McConaughey driving with this contemplative look on his face in the commercials for Lincoln cars.
Discover more from The Arts Are Life
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
The Arts Are Life 