One Film A Day: Drive My Car

DAY 20 - 21/11/2023

This film is in my opinion, one of the best Murakami adaptations ever made. A notoriously difficult author to adapt, Murakami's work shines in this interpretation by Ryusuke Hamaguchi. The film of course is, Drive My Car (2021).

This film is long. 3 hours long. The first 40 minutes of the film is simply the prologue. That being said, watching this film is an experience like no other. There are shots and moments that I think are just leagues better than any Hollywood production.

There is a stigma on movies being "slow" or "boring" but as I continued exploring more and more of film, I discovered that there is no such thing as "slow" but sometimes just mistakes in pacing. But that shouldn't put off anyone watching a film that doesn't have action and instead chooses to use dialogue or visual storytelling as a tool.

That's what cinema is all about. This film in particular has a multi-lingual approach to its dialogue which to me is a stand-out point of this film. The mix of languages creates an interesting rhythm in the dialogue that acts almost like a makeshift film score for this film. Rhythm in dialogue has been a staple technique in many films over the years but a very underrated or underappreciated technique that most filmmakers either aren't aware of, or don't use.

My Rating 8.5/10.