Drive my Car Review

How the film diverges from the book, whilst keeping some things the same.

Published as part of a short story collection, Drive My Car is one of Murakami’s finest short stories. But it’s not particularly dramatic, strange, or interesting. Nothing would suggest that it would make a particularly cinematic film. But here we are, with  the most critically acclaimed  Imternational film of the year, and now the winner of Best Foreign Film.

The short story

Taking the title of the short story form a Beatles story, the main character is another Murakami proxy. He’s introduced as a widower, and his wife is mentioned as being someone he was in love with but perhaps thtere were things about him that he never understood. Then there is an actor who had an affair with the wife right up until she died. Finally, the third main character is the driver. These characters appear in the same form in the film, more or less. But the film adds several characters who don’t exist in the book. Instead of the book’s limited dramatis personae environment, the film goes for a more expanisive cast that is closer to the previous works of the firector rather than the Murakami story.

The wife is wonderfully played in the film; a mixture of eroticism, sadness and strength by Reika Kirishima. We see that she loves her husband very much. And we know this before the scene where the main character accidentally finds her making love with another man. Yet the film  makes this revelation somehow boring and not as surprising as it should have been; leaving us to wonder if the man had always believed that his partner was unfaithful.

Both book and film make it clear that the main character was waiting for his wife to explain her infidelity, but she dies the same evening. I thought that the film hinted that her death was a suicide, but  later we’re told that she had a cerebral heamorrhage. This could have been caused by a blunt object to the head – yet the film never looks at the possibility of her being murdered, or that it could have been a suicide. The absence of the wife is a massive part of the book. Yet the character in the film shows less regret than we would believe possible for one who has lost their partner of twenty years.

The book largely uses conversations between the driver and director to reveal what happened when he struck up a  friendship with the actor his wife had an affair with. These are some of the best parts of the story – tense, exciting, and we don’t know where the story will turn next. Yet these conversations aren’t even used in the film. It’s an example of why Murakami has always presented such a challenge to directors adapting his works for the screen. The character’s internal monologues in the first person are what gives the writing its power – but this is difficult to translate to a visual medium.

The actor is presented as a rather timid man who is attractive to the women without having any strong characteristics. He’s more of a threat in the book and his outbreaks of violence are easier to accept, especially as they are grounded in alcoholism.

I can’t say that this film has done a bad job of adapting the story. In some ways it’s very original – it borrows some details from other stories in the same collection and it works. A lot of the stories that the wife tells him come from Scheherazade in the same collection – and Hamaguchi manages to interpolate these within the story of Drive my Car without losing the cohesion of the narrative.

Yet it doesn’t have the mysterious Murakami quality you get from reading the book. What the film does have that the book doesn’t – is a powerful scene where the actor/director is comforted by a Korean-signing actress who tells him to carry on living, it could and should have been the ending. Yet the film ends with the driver now living on Korea but driving Yusuke’s red Saab. It’s an oddly flat ending that really lacks an emotional catharsis that the film had led us to expect. The film has found favour with critics who found something more in the film than I did. It’s said to show another side of Japan, and is even being touted as a tourist advertisement. Yet the film shows very few famous landmarks that we would expect to see. Perhaps this is inevitable from a film that wants to focus on the banal reality at the expanse of any wonder. Yet it’s an oddly cold, uninvolving film, and it’s not been a success in Japan, with people largely ignoring it for bigger homegrown films such as Demonslayer.

Planning the Perfect trip to Japan

The Most Beautiful Things to Do in Japan While You Are on Your Holiday!

Years of travel and study would be required to fully comprehend the Japanese people’s culture.

In this article, I’d like to assist you in deciding what should not be missed on a trip to Japan in order to fully immerse yourself in the Land of the Rising Sun.

Here are some of the things to do in Japan, in no particular order:

1. Attend A Matsuri

Matsuri, or Japanese festivals (generally Shinto), can be found in all cities of Japan and are very common as they mark the various changes in the climate, or pay homage to a historical, cultural anniversary, or may indicate a rite of passage (like the age of majority), or they can still represent a popular or Shintoist belief.

These are always colorful and cheerful parties that take over the city and involve a large number of people. During Matsuri, you can often find stalls of traditional food and sweets in the city, filling the festive streets with their delectable aroma.

 2. Sleep In A Ryokan

The Ryokan are traditional Japanese hotels where the rooms with tatami floors have a table in the center where you can eat sitting on a pillow and where the futon, the Japanese bed that is placed on the tatami at night, is stored in the closet (by the maid )

https://www.booking.com/region/jp/mount-fuji.html?

3. See Mount Fuji

Mount Fuji is not just any mountain; it is the highest peak in Japan (3776 m) and is considered sacred by the Japanese.

Those who want to admire the view and take some nice photos can hike up to the fifth Kawaguchiko station, which is 2305 meters above sea level, and then take the bus back.

According to a Japanese proverb, “Whoever climbs Mount Fuji once in a lifetime is wise; who climbs it twice is a fool.”

4. Go To A Maid Cafe 

Entering one of these coffee shops is an all-Japanese experience to try.

These establishments are mostly found in Akihabara, and the waitresses, dressed in Victorian attire, are there to serve the customer in all aspects, thus impersonating the role of the devoted “maid” who will not fail to surprise you with a few touches of “magic,” thanks to the almost enchanted atmosphere of the internal environment.

https://en.japantravel.com/tokyo/maidreamin-maid-cafe-in-akihabara/21398

5. Attend A Sumo Meeting

Sumo is Japan’s national sport, and I am confident that witnessing a match of this hand-to-hand combat dating back to the 6th century will be an adventure to remember.

The Sumo Tournaments, also known as hon-basho, are held only in the odd months, six times a year, and last 15 days. A meeting can be held in Tokyo in January, May, and September, as well as in Osaka in March, Nagoya in July, and Fukuoka in November.https://trulytokyo.com/how-to-buy-tickets-for-a-tokyo-sumo-match/

6. Going To An Onsen

Onsen is Japanese for “thermal spring,” and the country has over 3000 of them. The Japanese bathing tradition dates back to ancient times and has almost sacred significance.

After a long day at work, the Japanese prefer to relax in a hot tub, especially if it is a thermal spring, which has even more beneficial effects on body and mind.

https://dogo.jp/en/

7. Attend A Geisha / Maiko Show

The geisha (or geiko, in the Kyoto dialect) is one of many images that come to mind when we think of Japan, as it embodies Japanese beauty and art, with precious kimonos, elegant and precise gestures, musicality, traditional ceremonies and dances.

The geisha is an artist with various skills (singing, music, conversation, etc.) whose job it is to entertain clients in tearooms called ochaya in the evenings.https://www.insidekyoto.com/kyoto-geisha

8. Visit The Most Beautiful Hotels 

Japan is a very beautiful country and there are a lot of places to stay while you are on vacation.

Please see below some of the most comfortable hotels to stay: 

  1. Suiran, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Kyoto
  2. The Okura,https://www.hyatt.com/en-US/hotel/japan/park-hyatt-tokyo/tyoph?src=corp_lclb_gmb_seo_tyoph Tokyo
  3. Park Hyatt Tokyo
  4. Shangri-La Hotel, Tokyo
  5. Conrad Tokyo
  6. Tokyo Station Hotel
  7. Mandarin Oriental, Tokyo
  8. Aman Tokyo
  9. Hoshinoya Tokyo

9. Going To A Neko Cafe 

If you miss your pets that have been left at home, or if you simply adore cats and want to spoil someone, you can visit a Neko Cafe (or in Japanese neko kissa), where a feline colony awaits you in one of the many cafes scattered throughout Japan.https://www.kanpai-japan.com/travel-guide/neko-cafe-cat-experience

10. Go To A Love Hotel

Confidentiality is well known in Japan, but contrary to popular belief, the Japanese are not cold, despite the fact that it is impolite to show effusions in public. In fact, the Japanese are just as passionate as the Westerners in private, but they prefer to show it away from prying eyes.

Love hotels, which can be simple or themed, are popular in Japan. Sometimes, they can be booked for as short a period as 1 hour. But to make the most of it, you should spend a night in one of the adult love hotels. Baths, sex toys and pornographic films come as standard. Not to mention condoms, of course.https://www.agoda.com/hotel-fine-garden-matsuyama-free-parking-adult-only/hotel/matsuyama-jp.html?cid=1844104

How Battle Royale became the ultimate Japanese teen film

Films about teenagers make up the bulk of Japanese cinema in the nineties, The period between puberty and adulthood is even more romanticised than in America. Yet at the end of the century one film came out that was to change the face of Japanese cinema and bring about new Asian influence in American cinema.

Battle Royale managed to subvert the typical high school film by giving the youngsters a panoply of weapons. The idea of children turning feral goes back to `lord of the Flies’ in literature, but ‘Battle Royale’ was more shocking in showing the teenagers still wearing their school uniforms while massacring each other.

Directed by Fukasu, battle Royale turned out to be the last film of a director best known in the west for directing ‘Battles Without Honor and Humanity’. HE managed to achieve a film that was far more successful than he could ever have imagined. Certainly, it was helped by having a great starring role from Takeshi Kitano, and a very charismatic cast of actors.

The violence was incredibly well-choreographed, stylish and sometimes beautiful, and it was set to the backdrop of the standards of classical music. By the time it came to be released in the US, fears of the film inciting another school shooting were enough for it to be delayed indefinitely, and when it was finally released, people were watching the Hunger Games, sometimes not aware of how much that film had borrowed from Battle Royale.

Yet it’s Battle Royale that has had a much stronger cultural legacy, with the film as highly regarded now as it was on its first release in the year 2000.

British Women the ugliest in the world?

A dating coach famously announced that he didn’t consider British Women to be worth dating, based mainly on their looks and attitudes. His name is Richard Ruina, although for the purposes of this article it doesn’t really matter.

On the other hand, a number of people (British, it must be said) leapt to their defence, calling the guru a dick, asshole, and misogynist. I don’t have the right to criticise anyone, least of all when it comes to appearances. But I can see how some might consider women who are overweight, sport tattoos, and are badly dressed, as being unattractive.

So what’s the truth of the matter? The fact is, there are some stunners (at the top end) and a lot of average women in between, and then the ‘mingers’ (british slang for unattractive) making up a large group at the bottom.

Women on a night out in Liverpool, a city in the north of England.

It’s the last group that are responsible for the low opinion held for British women in the UK. The women seen on holidays in Spain and Greece, for example, acting like hooligans or ‘ladettes’ according to some British tabloids. The majority of British women are not like this at all. In fact, there is a rich phenotype made up of mixed races in many English women, which is why you will find it quite difficult to identify a British woman from women from other countries in Europe.

Still, if you’re a man from England, you’ll probably have some complaints about British women being cold, too demanding, difficult to please. As a result, you’ll probably enjoy dating women from other countries who visit here. And that doesn’t mean you think British women are ugly, just that it’s good to have some new experiences.