I've read stories by Haruki Murakami in the past. Many of which refer the to the idea of romance and youth and the heartbreak that time brings as the two come together to form lifetimes of happiness, regret, and isolation. I've enjoyed reading these stories, despite their more depressive nature in which nostalgia takes reign and fills your body, leading to your own mind falling victim to the many thoughts that roam your mind as your read each page.
With a film adaptation of one of his works, I roughly knew what to expect prior to watching the film, even without watching any trailers of the film. With Haruki Murakami, you simply know what you're getting.
These days, it's almost rare for a Japanese film to enter the public eye, and I'm really happy that Drive My Car has had an impact on highlighting the demand and appreciation for Japanese films that aren't simply animation or live action adaptations of those animated series, but I feel from the praise the film was getting over the last few weeks that my already somewhat low expectations were still met with some mild disappointment in parts.
However, there's still plenty to appreciate about Drive My Car, providing your have the interest in literature either prior or after watching, as well as time to invest into what is three hours of a film that continuously references it.
Drive My Car
Drive My Car centralises itself around the lives of writers and actors, utilising the conscruction of plays to match the parallels of the dramatic and deeply heartbroken and corrupt lives the actors themselves live. Through this, the film serves more as a love letter to playwrights and the performances of actors in theatre as they pull their emotions and hardships and turn them into influence and art in stories.
This is an evident inspiration behind the film's own dramatic events, where between are the many discussions of playwrights and their works, as these artists connect themselves to the stories of the past in effort to accept and deal with their own problems.
It was through this that I rather appreciated the film's performances, where the cast seemed painfully numb for the most part, with limited expressions and rather monotone sounds in their voices. It showed that much of their pain was bottled up, kept hidden, waiting to be used later. We even see in parts where our protagonist breaks down into tears during performances, with dialogue that often mirrors his own worries and hardships in life.
The film's narrative takes on the troubles of an actor, as he witnesses the reality in which his partner isn't faithful and frequently lies to him, he never really confronts her about the fact that he knows, and her life quickly comes to an end with all those bottled up emotions kept hidden, with many words never being said. The result is a life of sadness and regret, where he wishes he had talked to her and confronted her, to see what she had to say.
There's the pain of hate, sadness, and loss in our protagonist, where his trust was neglected and he had no real method of approaching the issue. It speaks of our own lives and how we rarely communicate, often keeping things to ourselves and ultimately resulting in more pain that could've been avoided by simply talking and communicating with each other.
Instead, our protagonist speaks of his emotions and problems to his driver, though he still is never direct in what he's referring to, there's reflection and emotion through the works of others, often relating to writers and theatre.
Cinematography
For the most part, Drive My Car's cinematography doesn't do anything all that interesting. It's most effective moments are during movement, with a strong emphasis on environment rather than characters. There's a heavy attention to composition in these moments, and it's certainly quite visually appealing.
Though I feel that the choice to make most shots of characters static goes alongside the film's attention to theatre, where the main focus and perspective from an audience is direct. Where our characters speak directly towards us and the entirety of the production is aimed at an audience.
Whether this was intentional or not, it's something I did quite like. There's more awareness in the cinematography and how scenes are connected to each other, and how the story unfolds; which for the most part reflects the production of a play. Though this brings me into an area of the film that I feel most certainly was a weakness: length.
I couldn't help but feel that Drive My Car did not need to have a runtime that clocked in at just under three entire hours. Its narrative is one that is simple and manages to get its point across within a significantly short duration of time. It simply lingers and refuses to let go, but one could also make the argument that the incredibly long runtime was a decision that thus amplifies the connection to emotion and how heartbreak and loss can stick with us even as the years go by.
I typically struggle to support films that do overstay their welcome, and feel that even two hours of runtime is often pushing it for most productions -- though while I don't enjoy it, I can appreciate when it's done intentionally to connect and immerse the audience to the very points and focus the film has to offer.
There's areas of the directing and cinematography that do contribute to this theory that the runtime contributes to the conveying of emotional trauma and the passing of time, particularly in the moments where there is movement, where our protagonist is in his car and the locations are changing, displaying the passing of time as well. Even when we see the same few roads and locations over and over, it does in fact add to the feeling that while we move from one place to another in life, things ultimately remain. We hold our deepest regrets, and we feel our greatest pains as if they started the day before.
Haruki Murakami's writing often tells us of such life lessons: that our deepest desires and emotions follow us through time; even so in his book Norwegian Wood, where it's protagonist is landing in another country, yet a simple song brings back an entire lifetime of events to reflect upon.
Japanese Cinema
While Drive My Car was a film I still managed to enjoy, it was one that didn't really pique my interest all that much. It didn't feel very refreshing, and as mentioned above it has a runtime that's just far too long. But I can really appreciate that Japanese cinema could be taking a turn and starting anew; I look forward to seeing more from the country, especially given its rich cultural elements and history -- these two alone provide such support to narrative structure alone and offer a lot of possibilities.
Haruki Murakami's works almost seem like a safe bet to start with, where people recognise the name and the style and ultimately know what they're going to get. With the film being successful, I'm sure it'll open the gates to even more creative productions going forward.
