Drive My Car: The Art of The Conversation
Not only was Drive My Car almost the best picture of its year, but it might have the best dialogue of a film in *any* year
Drive My Car, directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, blew filmgoers away with its impressive debut. Centered around a recently widowed actor Yusuke Kafuku(Hidetoshi Nishijima), the themes range from grief, mystery, passion, comedy, and the existential. One theme in particular that stands out is communication, and in tackling the complexities of how humans communicate Drive My Car has the greatest written dialogue I’ve ever seen on film.
Drive My Car was actually adapted from a short story from Murakami Haruki’s book Men Without Women, and follows much of the same story beats. Yusuke Kafuku is an accomplished actor who continually performs Anton Chekhov’s play Uncle Vanya, a story about a man grieving a life wasted, with actors who all perform in different languages for artistic effect. Yusuke’s wife Oto Kafuku(Reika Kirishima) is a producer who dies unexpectedly after it is revealed she routinely has affairs with young men. After her death Yusuke travels to a university to prepare a new performance of Uncle Vanya, where he is assigned a chauffeur Misaki Watari(Toko Miura). The two start out butting heads, but over time driving together a special relationship forms.
As Yusuke grapples with feelings of grief, betrayal, and guilt, he begins to sense he did not understand his late wife Oto as well as he thought. Despite living with her for decades, speaking everyday, and experiencing great trauma together, there was a side to her that remained a mystery to him. In juxtaposition to him not understanding his own wife, Yusuke has every actor perform their role in Uncle Vanya with a different language. The characters speak directly to each other, but do not actually understand each other. No matter who it is, the only person who will ever fully understand what you’re saying is yourself.
Every character harbors a secret they keep out of fear of not being understood or seen fairly. Over time the way they carry themselves in public gives way to the vulnerabilities they hide. The brilliance of the writing is when two characters are truly connecting on an emotional level, they often aren’t explaining themselves clearly at all. When Yusuke and one of Oto’s lovers, the impulsive young actor Koji Takatsuki(Masaki Okada), are talking plainly about their relationship with Oto, neither of them outright say Oto cheated with Koji. It is acknowledged in a pause in the conversation — completely unspoken, yet completely understood.
Towards the end Yusuke confesses his insecurity and doubts about Oto to Misaki, confused how his wife loved him dearly yet betrayed him constantly.
“Maybe there was nothing mysterious about her,” Misaki says, “Would it be hard to think that she was simply like that? That she loved you dearly, and that she sought other men constantly doesn’t seem to contradict each other or sound deceptive to me. Is that strange?”
Drive My Car is a masterpiece of not just dialogue but filmmaking as a whole. All themes circle back at the end, just as Yusuke must learn to soldier on through grief he learns true communication is not understanding but acceptance. It is impossible to understand why Oto had affairs, why Koji was so impulsive, or why Yusuke never confronted Oto, but by accepting these characters as they are we can see them clearly and grow to love them.
The end of Uncle Vanya goes much the same, as Vanya, played by Yusuke himself, accepts the past for what it is and looks to the future.
“We must live our lives… We’ll live through the long, long days, and through the long nights.”