Drive My Car

Released Nov 24, 2021

2h 59m

Drama

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Drive My Car: Trailer 1

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97%

Tomatometer

216 Reviews

78%

Audience Score

1,000+ Ratings

Two years after his wife's unexpected death, Yusuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima), a renowned stage actor and director, receives an offer to direct a production of Uncle Vanya at a theater festival in Hiroshima. There, he meets Misaki Watari (Toko Miura), a taciturn young woman assigned by the festival to chauffeur him in his beloved red Saab 900. As the production's premiere approaches, tensions mount amongst the cast and crew, not least between Yusuke and Koji Takatsuki, a handsome TV star who shares an unwelcome connection to Yusuke's late wife. Forced to confront painful truths raised from his past, Yusuke begins -- with the help of his driver -- to face the haunting mysteries his wife left behind. Adapted from Haruki Murakami's short story, Ryusuke Hamaguchi's Drive My Car is a haunting road movie traveling a path of love, loss, acceptance, and peace. Winner of three prizes at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, including Best Screenplay.

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Critics Consensus

Drive My Car's imposing runtime holds a rich, patiently engrossing drama that reckons with self-acceptance and regret.

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Audience Says

Drive My Car might be a challenge if you're not ready for a movie on the longer, slower side -- but it rewards patience with a deeply moving story.

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Danny Leigh

Financial Times

Director Ryusuke Hamaguchi makes it easy to stay put. The film passes at a glide.

Rated: 4/5

Mar 24, 2022

Full Review

Tim Cogshell

FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)

I really appreciated this film. It's very slow moving and you have to stick with it.

Mar 12, 2022

Full Review

Ty Burr

Ty Burr's Watch List (Substack)

The pieces Hamaguchi assembles don’t seem to add up, and yet when it’s over you may feel that the whole is much, much larger than the sum of the parts, in ways beyond the power to articulate.

Rated: 4/4

Mar 2, 2022

Full Review

Amy Smith

InSession Film

When preparing myself to see Drive My Car for the first time, I made sure to get to a cinema and allow myself to be captivated for the three-hour runtime.

Mar 1, 2024

Full Review

Dave Giannini

InSession Film

Drive My Car will not be for everyone, but for those willing, your patience will be rewarded in the purest form of empathy available for cinephiles this year.

Feb 24, 2024

Full Review

Greg Carlson

Vague Visages

Misaki and Kafuku are surrounded by an incredible ensemble of characters with the capacity to astonish, but the central relationship that develops in Drive My Car fuels Hamaguchi’s examination of how people choose to process long-internalized feelings.

Jul 28, 2023

Full Review

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Brenda

Story was too long, a lot could have been deleted and it was a very confusing story. I would not recommend this to anyone.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

04/08/22

Full Review

L

It is tedious but deep. Beautifully filmed.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

04/01/22

Full Review

William I

A masterpiece with amazing screenplay and beautiful cinematography. A touching story of love, loss and overcoming tragedy. Probably the best film to come out in the last year. The duration will likely test the patience of the casual moviegoer, but cinephiles are in for a treat.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

03/27/22

Full Review

B

Too drawn out. Payoff not enough. And subtitles were cut off (only saw top half of words) on the bottom. A challenging 3 hours!

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

03/26/22

Full Review

CJ Happy

It was loooong. Unnecessarily long. Dont go to see this if youre tired.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/24/22

Full Review

Mary Sanz

Felt stunning and heartfelt

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

03/23/22

Full Review

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Ryûsuke Hamaguchi

Director

Hidetoshi Nishijima

Yûsuke Kafuku

Toko Miura

Misaki Watari

Reika Kirishima

Oto, Kafuku's Wife

Yoo-rim Park

Lee Yoon-a

Dae-Young Jin

Kon Yoon-su

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Drive My Car: Trailer 1

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Synopsis

Two years after his wife's unexpected death, Yusuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima), a renowned stage actor and director, receives an offer to direct a production of Uncle Vanya at a theater festival in Hiroshima. There, he meets Misaki Watari (Toko Miura), a taciturn young woman assigned by the festival to chauffeur him in his beloved red Saab 900. As the production's premiere approaches, tensions mount amongst the cast and crew, not least between Yusuke and Koji Takatsuki, a handsome TV star who shares an unwelcome connection to Yusuke's late wife. Forced to confront painful truths raised from his past, Yusuke begins -- with the help of his driver -- to face the haunting mysteries his wife left behind. Adapted from Haruki Murakami's short story, Ryusuke Hamaguchi's Drive My Car is a haunting road movie traveling a path of love, loss, acceptance, and peace. Winner of three prizes at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, including Best Screenplay.

Director: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
Producer: Tsuyoshi Gorô, Misaki Kawamura, Osamu Kubota, Sachio Matsushita, Yoshito Nakabe, Keiji Okumura, Jin Suzuki, Teruhisa Yamamoto
Screenwriter: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Takamasa Oe
Distributor: Sideshow / Janus Films
Production Co: Nippon Shuppan Hanbai (Nippan) K.K., Drive My Car Production Committee, Bitters End, Culture Entertainment, C&I Entertainment, The Asahi Shimbun Company
Genre: Drama
Original Language: Japanese
Release Date (Theaters): Nov 24, 2021, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 2, 2022
Box Office (Gross USA): $2.3M
Runtime: 2h 59m
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital
Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.85:1)

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