In which the Mister joins me in reviewing DRIVE MY CAR (2021), which is currently streaming on HBO Max. Written and directed by Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, with additional writing credits to Takamasa Oe and based on the short story by Haruki Murakami, this film tells the story of a man learning to carry on after thedeath of his wife. Yûsuke Kafuku (played byHidetoshi Nishijima) is a lauded stage actor and playwright who takes existing materialsand refashions them as multilingual dramatic pieces. His wife, Oto (Reika Kirishima) is a writer for television with a proclivity that includes storytelling during and after lovemaking. Yûsuke spends a lot of time driving and it affords him comfort during some turbulenttimes in his life. However after the death of his wife he seems to retreat even more into himself until two years later when he is offered the chance to stage Anton Chekhov’s play Uncle Vanya, as part of a limited engagement repertoire in Hiroshima. Here he meets Misaki, the driver (playedby Tôko Miura), with whom he spends most of his time and forges a friendship where they share a common ground of loss. The film has a run time of 2 h 59 m and is unrated on IMDB but there is depictionsof sexual intercourse and mild cursing. The film is an Oscar contender with 4 nominations including Best Motion Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best International Feature. Please note there are SPOILERS in this review.

Opening intro music: GOAT by Wayne Jones, courtesy of YouTube Audio Library.