[KineJapan] Drive My Car

[Earl Jackson]

I suspect the interior of the supermarket was one in shinokubo. They did
change the license plate to a Korean one so the intention is to set the
scene in Korea for sure.
Earl Jackson
Chair Professor
Foreign Languages and Literatures
Asia University
Professor Emeritus
National Chiao Tung University
Associate Professor Emeritus
University of California, Santa Cruz


On Wed, Mar 16, 2022 at 5:45 PM Eija Niskanen via KineJapan <
kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu> wrote:

> Hi!
> I saw it for the 2nd time yesterday  - this time on big screen for a press
> screening in Helsinki. I wonder what you make of the last scene happening
> in Korea? Or was there some Korean funding involved, which demanded some
> location shooting in South Korea?
> Eia
>
> ke 2. helmik. 2022 klo 4.20 Goddard, Timothy via KineJapan (
> kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu) kirjoitti:
>
>> For those of you who were interested in tonight’s webinar but were unable
>> to attend, an edited recording will be available here:
>>
>>
>>
>> https://www.japanhousela.com/happenings/events/
>>
>>
>>
>> —Tug
>>
>>
>>
>>  —
>>
>> Dr. Timothy Unverzagt Goddard 高大同
>>
>> Lecturer, Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures
>>
>> Yale University
>>
>> 320 York Street, Room 112
>>
>> New Haven, CT 06511
>>
>> https://eall.yale.edu/people/timothy-unverzagt-goddard
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> *From: *KineJapan <kinejapan-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> on behalf of
>> Miryam Sas via KineJapan <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu>
>> *Date: *Tuesday, February 1, 2022 at 4:04 PM
>> *To: *Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu>
>> *Cc: *Miryam Sas <mbsas at berkeley.edu>
>> *Subject: *Re: [KineJapan] Drive My Car
>>
>> It looks like the series of talks is being recorded--at least from what I
>> can gather from the recordings of the previous symposia in the series.
>>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Feb 1, 2022 at 10:37 AM Roger Macy via KineJapan <
>> kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu> wrote:
>>
>> I agree that the audition scenes are striking, particularly that of the
>> signing mute character, but my memory is that Hamaguchi allowed himself
>> some medium close-ups there.  I’m pretty sure I would have walked out of
>> the (diegetically) ‘real’ theatre performance if confronted with an
>> enormous screen for the surtitles with two very small actors at the bottom
>> of it, who weren’t ‘speaking’ a common language.
>>
>> 5 pm PST is pretty late in old Europe but I’d be interested whether
>> Hamaguchi felt a detachment, or commitment, to that style of theatre
>> direction.
>>
>> Roger
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Tuesday, 1 February 2022, 17:28:25 GMT, Goddard, Timothy via KineJapan
>> <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Dear Marcus,
>>
>>
>>
>> Glad to hear that you liked the film so much. I saw it at Lincoln Center
>> in New York back in early December, and it had a similar effect on me.
>>
>>
>>
>> Hamaguchi will be participating in a webinar organized by Japan House Los
>> Angeles this evening that might be of interest to you and other KineJapan
>> members:
>>
>>
>>
>> https://www.japanhousela.com/events/ma-in-japanese-film/
>> <https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.japanhousela.com%2Fevents%2Fma-in-japanese-film%2F&data=04%7C01%7Ctug2%40connect.yale.edu%7C0adb58d7726547dec47508d9e5c67cd3%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C637793462932174223%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=jx5DSztD3unOk1GuKwn1mc0rEJPykJJ734KUzDJzI58%3D&reserved=0>
>>
>>
>>
>> He’ll be joined in conversation by Hitoshi Abe of UCLA and Ken Tadashi
>> Oshima of UW.
>>
>>
>>
>> —Tug
>>
>>
>>
>> —
>>
>> Dr. Timothy Unverzagt Goddard 高大同
>>
>> Lecturer, Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures
>>
>> Yale University
>>
>> 320 York Street, Room 112
>>
>> New Haven, CT 06511
>>
>> https://eall.yale.edu/people/timothy-unverzagt-goddard
>>
>>
>>
>> *From: *KineJapan <kinejapan-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> on behalf of
>> Markus Nornes via KineJapan <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu>
>> *Date: *Tuesday, February 1, 2022 at 12:11 PM
>> *To: *Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu>
>> *Cc: *Markus Nornes <nornes at umich.edu>
>> *Subject: *[KineJapan] Drive My Car
>>
>> I finally saw Drive My Car the other day. It's one of those films that
>> dwells inside you long afterwards. Loved it.
>>
>>
>>
>> The rhythm and pace of the film is really special. Actors deliver lines
>> in a slightly flat tone and regular cadence. They break into "acting" when
>> they audition, in advanced rehearsal or on stage, which is probably what
>> makes those scenes so striking. I have to admit I hate films-about-theater,
>> and one reason is the style of performance comes off as so stilted and
>> wrong (have yet to see Hamaguchi's Intimacies, but I'd probably dislike
>> it). But this was one film-about-theater that quite mysteriously _worked_.
>>
>>
>>
>> Hamaguchi builds a curious self-reflexivity into *Drive My Car.* The
>> weird style of rehearsal built into the narrative was also what he
>> subjected his actors to in preproduction. And, judging from comments by a
>> couple of them, they really didn't know what to make of it (the actors are
>> disciplined if they deliver lines with any degree of emoting).
>>
>>
>>
>> There is a key line delivered by a mute character to the theater director
>> that goes something like, "Unlike the others, I always have to struggle
>> with words and communicating meaning, so I understand how what matters is
>> not always in the words. I understand what you are doing." This is
>> definitely what's going on in this film; at the same time, I couldn't help
>> noticing the climax is ultimately...wordy.
>>
>>
>>
>> So this got me wondering. *Drive My Car* would seem to embody the legacy
>> of what Aaron called the "detached style" of 90s/turn of the century
>> Japanese film—films like *Eureka,* another quiet film about trauma,
>> memory, and healing. I won't rehearse Aaron's argument here (if you haven't
>> encountered it, here is a nice gloss
>> <https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.academia.edu%2F217600%2FRecognizing_Others_in_a_New_Japanese_Cinema%3Femail_work_card%3Dtitle&data=04%7C01%7Ctug2%40connect.yale.edu%7C0adb58d7726547dec47508d9e5c67cd3%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C637793462932174223%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=sne4P7yw9nRRjlfu3bh5NqsK4tcVC%2FVRNVcSVnPnRt8%3D&reserved=0>)
>>   But I suspect Aaron has something to say about this?
>>
>>
>>
>> I'm very curious about how other people are experiencing this film.
>>
>>
>>
>> Fun Fact: I drove that very car back in the late 80s, and sold it to none
>> other than Darrell Davis.
>>
>>
>>
>> Markus
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ---
>>
>> *Markus Nornes*
>>
>> *Professor of Asian Cinema*
>>
>> *Interim Chair, Dept. of Asian Languages and Culture*
>>
>> Department of Film, Television and Media, Department of Asian Languages
>> and Cultures, Penny Stamps School of Art & Design
>>
>>
>>
>> *Homepage: **http://www-personal.umich.edu/~nornes/*
>> <https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww-personal.umich.edu%2F~nornes%2F&data=04%7C01%7Ctug2%40connect.yale.edu%7C0adb58d7726547dec47508d9e5c67cd3%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C637793462932174223%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=5iphfIg%2Bw6%2FTgXD1YpSuOhyuRL8pHY3OsXv7wIpF6vI%3D&reserved=0>
>>
>>
>>
>> *Department of Film, Television and Media 6348 North Quad 105 S. State
>> Street Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1285*
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> *Miryam Sas*
>> Professor, Comparative Literature, Film & Media, Japanese Arts
>>
>> University of California, Berkeley
>>
>>
>>
>> *Feeling Media: Potentiality and the Afterlife of Art *(Duke University
>> Press, forthcoming Fall 2022 )
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>
>
> --
> Eija Niskanen
> Programming director
> Helsinki Cine Aasia, March 12.-15.2020
> www.helsinkicineaasia.fi
> +358-50-355 3189
>
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