[KineJapan] Drive My Car

Wed Mar 16 08:12:36 EDT 2022

 I heard that the film was originally to be set in Korea but that Covid put an end to that plan. So the coda seems to be a nod to that.Roger

    On Wednesday, 16 March 2022, 09:52:28 GMT, Earl Jackson via KineJapan <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu> wrote:  

 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 JacksonChair ProfessorForeign Languages and LiteraturesAsia UniversityProfessor EmeritusNational Chiao Tung UniversityAssociate Professor EmeritusUniversity 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/

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 intoDrive 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 likeEureka, 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)   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/
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 NiskanenProgramming directorHelsinki Cine Aasia, March 12.-15.2020www.helsinkicineaasia.fi
+358-50-355 3189

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