The Woodstock Film Festival is proud to present an intimate screening of Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s critically acclaimed drama DRIVE MY CAR at the Rosendale Theatre courtesy of Janus Films. DRIVE MY CAR took home three top prizes at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, including Best Screenplay, and is Japan’s submission to the Academy Awards.
A discount code is available for Academy voters. Please email us at info@woodstockfilmfestival.org for more information.
“A quiet masterpiece”
“Perfectly paced, intricately structured and entirely absorbing”
“The most entrancing film of the year”
ABOUT THE FILM:
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.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER:
Ryusuke Hamaguchi was born in 1978. After graduating from the University of Tokyo, Hamaguchi spent several years working in the commercial film industry before entering the graduate program in film at Tokyo University of the Arts.
He made his festival debut in San Sebastian and Tokyo FILMeX in 2008 with his graduation film PASSION. He then directed the Japanese-Korean co-production THE DEPTHS (2010), INTIMACIES (2012), and a series of documentaries, THE TOHOKU TRILOGY (THE SOUND OF THE WAVES, VOICES FROM THE WAVES, and STORYTELLERS), co-directed by Ko Sakai, from 2011 to 2013.
Hamaguchi made his first major appearance on the global stage with HAPPY HOUR, his 317-minute feature film, which premiered at the Locarno International Film Festival and went on to win major awards at numerous festivals worldwide. He followed this up with ASAKO I & II, which debuted in Competition at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival to universal acclaim. Hamaguchi additionally served as the co-writer of Kiyoshi Kurosawa's WIFE OF A SPY, which won the Silver Lion at the 2020 Venice Film Festival.
In 2021, Hamaguchi’s WHEEL OF FORTUNE AND FANTASY premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize. His latest work, DRIVE MY CAR, premiered in Competition at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival where it was awarded the Best Screenplay Prize, the FIPRESCI International Critics’ Prize, and the Ecumenical Jury Prize.