Interview with Ryosuke Hamaguchi, director of “Drive My Car” / We Can Be Better Listeners

Theater News Base: When Japanese writer and director Ryosuke Hamaguchi first caught sight of the red sub-900 turbo of his acclaimed film “Drive My Car,” he realized it was the car he wanted. Thirty years had passed since the car was born, but it was flawless and perfectly suited for use in film.

While no one awarded the car in the awards season, Hamaguchi’s film received a lot of attention. The success of “Drive Me” began last year at the Cannes Film Festival, where in the main competition it won the Best Screenplay Award for Hamaguchi and his colleague Takamasa, as well as the Pfeiffer Award and the World Church Award. .

Despite its success in Cannes, the film did not have much commercial success in Japan itself, earning only $ 250,000 from August to the end of last year, although it later won eight awards at the Japan Academy Awards. With the start of the Film Awards season in the final months of 2021, “Drive Me” suddenly peaked and topped almost every list of North American film critics, claiming to be the main contender for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.

The big surprise came when the film was nominated for four awards in the 94th Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and, of course, International Feature Film. As expected, “Drive Me” won the International Feature Film Award, becoming the second Japanese film to win the award since “Departure” in 2008.

Hamaguchi, 43, and Takamasa he adapted the script for “Drive Me” from a short story of the same name by the famous Japanese writer Haruki Murakami. Their elaborate version follows the story of Yosuke Kafuko (played by Hidtoshi Nishijima), an actor and theater director who struggles with the unexpected death of his wife Otto (Rika Kirishima).

Kafuko accepts the offer to direct a multilingual stage performance of Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya” in Hiroshima. The theater company asks Yosuke not to drive himself and hires a young female driver named Misaki Watari (Toku Miura) to take Yosuke this way and that with his beloved Saab 900. He objects at first, but gives up after Misaki shows he is a skilled driver. As Kafuku confronts the unforgettable truths of his past, the film explores love, loss, and forgiveness, and explores how people relate to others and to themselves.

Prior to the March 27 Oscars, Cyanan interviewed Hamaguchi to learn more about the film and the ideas he is working on.

First of all, congratulations on four Oscar nominations, how do you feel about Japan’s first nomination for Best Picture?

Of course I am satisfied. I never expected it. I think the fact that non-English language films can be nominated in this way really confirms that everything is changing and we are part of that change.

I wanted to know about Saab 900 Beautiful red movie Ask why red?

In the original short story (Haruki Murakami), there was a yellow sub-sketch. I knew from the beginning that it was not possible to use a sketch machine, because sounds like the wind make it difficult, but we actually saw a few yellow bumps. Until one day a member of the logistics team in charge of arranging film machines came in with a red Saab, and I remember saying to myself, “Wow, what a beautiful machine.” When I found out it was a Saab 900, I thought it was not far from the original. I wanted the car to appear in the movie the way I had seen it. He still has that car.

I know your rehearsal process is similar to what Kafuko and his actors are preparing for the show, why do you prepare your actors this way?

When actors say or do something they do not normally do when playing the characters, their bodies feel weird and do not move as smoothly as normally expected. “Hun Yumi” (reading the script) is an exercise in saying words that one does not normally say. I asked my actors to repeat their dialogues over and over again, literally, without feeling. What eventually happens is that your mouth and your whole body get used to saying the words and learn things, such as where to breathe. As this happens, as I get used to the actors’ bodies, I can feel the change in their voices. When I hear their voices clear, that’s when I think we’re ready to shoot.

The actors in the play use their mother tongue, including Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, and so on. Did you try to convey a message by doing this?

The truth is that it has no message. Of course, words have meaning, but the most important part of our communication is body language and sound texture. There is a lot of information there and if you want to deceive, the viewer will notice. We must encourage reciprocal reactions between actors. I thought that if we cut the exchange circuit based on the meaning of the other party’s language, such things would happen more easily, you could not play a role unless you pay attention.

Park Yurim plays Lee Yoon-a, a Kafoku stage actor who communicates with others in Korean sign language. How did you use this character and Park’s role-playing to explore the disconnect between what a character says and what he feels?

I became interested in sign language when I was invited to a deaf film festival. They communicated with sign language. I felt really weird. I also found that sign language is a more physical and expressive language than I thought. In order to speak sign language, they have to look closely at the other person, because they can not understand until they look. I remember I was really under surveillance there and I felt that if someone looked at me with such depth, it meant that if I was going to lie, he could see my lie.

I think the use of sign language and the fact that we express ourselves openly are very much related; So when I decided to adapt this multilingual play, I did not want to use sign language as a language of disability; I really wanted to use sign language as another language. I was looking for someone to play this role and I came across Park Yurim and I felt he was a great actor.

Many of the characters’ problems in “Drive My Car” and “Uncle Vanya” are the inability to communicate. Some of them are due to their fear that their words will not be heard completely. Do you think we can be better listeners?

I really believe this. I really think about how much better the world would be if everyone became a good listener. Through interviews I did in my documentaries (The Tohoku Trilogy, made after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami), I became convinced that this was true in everyone’s life. Having a personal life means that you have something inside you that you want to express, and many of those words are hard to hear. I am always amazed by the power of expression when I am a listener, but at the same time I think I have to listen to myself. It is not just a matter of listening to others, it is also a matter of listening to parts of ourselves that we cannot change. I believe that it is not good to completely reject the unhappiness within us. I feel I need to be as frank and honest as possible with myself and others. I’m sure the world would be a little better if we could do that.

«Drive My Car “and” Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy “are your other films in 2021 Both deal with lies and deceptions and the pros and cons of keeping a story, whether to convince others or to convince ourselves. Kafi Takatsuki (Masaki Okada), one of Kafuku’s actors, admits that he feels “empty” from within, which makes sense given that he is an actor. You mean, like, saltines and their ilk, eh?

I do not necessarily think we should play a role or lie. I think that the way we live this way is somewhat inevitable; I mean, we all have inclinations, don’t we? Lying can be a short-term way to satisfy these desires. At the same time, I think we all know lies are very fragile; Because truth has a special attraction and human beings are drawn to it. The film illustrates this. Sometimes the entry of a sense of truth into our view can be considered almost a failure or a loss, but I think at the same time, when the truth really comes down, something very beautiful is formed. I’m very interested in that moment.