A Potpourri of Vestiges Review
By Murtaza Ali Khan
The
92nd Academy Awards would always be remembered for the unprecedented success of
a non-English language film. Noted South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho’s
comedy-thriller Parasite created history by winning the Oscars for Best
International Feature Film, Best Direction, Best Original Screenplay and Best
Picture. It was the first time that a non-English language film had won the
Oscar for Best Picture. Also, it was the first time that a winner of Best
International Feature Film (earlier known as Best Foreign Language Film) went
on to win the Oscar for Best Picture. In other words, Bong Joon-ho’s film
single-handedly changed the rules of the game. It all started with the Palme
d’Or win at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival and the film never looked back. This
year at the 94th Academy Awards we can have a similar outcome with
another non-English language film, Japanese filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s drama
film Drive My Car, competing in four categories viz. Best International Feature
Film, Best Direction, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture.
Now, the all important
question is whether Drive My Car will succeed in repeating the magic of
Parasite at the Oscars? Well, it is important to understand that before
Parasite’s triumph it was considered a bit outlandish for a foreign-language
film to get a Best Picture nomination. By no means it was impossible, but now
it’s looking more and more believable for a non-English language film. What
seems to work in Drive My Car’s favor is that it has suddenly emerged as a
critics’ favorite, winning the top prize from the New York Film Critics Circle
as well as the Los Angeles Film Critics Association while also getting honored
by the National Society for Film Critics.
It’s worth mentioning that these
three critic groups very rarely rally around a single film and Drive My Car is
only the sixth movie in history to do so—the other five being Goodfellas,
Schindler’s List, L.A. Confidential, The Hurt Locker, and The Social Network.
Clearly, the film is in great company but still this doesn’t guarantee
anything. However, one thing is certain: everyone will have their eyes on how
Drive My Car fares on the awards night. And if it does succeed in winning more
than one Oscar (right now it seems to be a very strong contender for Best
International Feature Film) then Parasite’s triumph would not have a remained a
one off thing and also it would have made sure that the Academy Awards didn’t
feel so local anymore.
What makes Drive My Car a
very unusual non-English language Oscar nominee is the fact that it lacks the
thrill and excitement of a film like Parasite or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Drive My Car is essentially a film about the social need of human beings to
connect with one another. It is also about love, betrayal, solitude, longing,
and grief. And about why art matters in our lives. It is primarily based on
Haruki Murakami's short story of the same name from his 2014 collection Men
Without Women. The screenplay is co-written by Takamasa Oe and Hamaguchi
himself. When the film premiered at e 2021 Cannes Film Festival, it bagged as
many as three awards, including Best Screenplay.
The film follows a famous
stage actor and director who must grapple with the challenge of directing a
multilingual production (with a mix of Japanese, Mandarin, Korean, Tagalog, and
Korean Sign Language) of Anton Chekov’s play Uncle Vanya in Hiroshima following
his beloved wife's unexpected death. What makes the bereavement even more
difficult for him is the fact that even though he was aware that his wife
cheated on him with a younger man he could never really confront her while she
was alive. What complicates the things even more is that he deliberately casts
the same young man in the role of Uncle Vanya. The extended sequences with
actors rehearsing for the play may at first look a little redundant but slowly
they tend to grow on you. Equally meditative are the scenic car rides with the
protagonist listening to a cassette of his dead wife reciting lines from Uncle
Vanya.
Drive My Car is the first
ever Best Picture nominee from Japan. Also, its four nominations ties it with
Akira Kurosawa’s 1985 magnum opus Ran as the most nominated Japanese film in
Oscars history. Regardless of whether the film wins big at the 94th
Academy Awards or not, there is no denying that the international success of
Drive My Car and Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy has placed Ryusuke Hamaguchi in a
very special league of filmmakers from Japan who have enjoyed success outside
of Japan such as Akira Kurosawa, Yasujirō Ozu, Kenji Mizoguchi, Masaki
Kobayashi, Nagisa Ōshima, and, more recently, Hirokazu Koreeda.
Drive My Car will be
available to stream exclusively on MUBI in India from April 1.
A version of this review was first published in The Daily Guardian.
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