is a 2021 Japanese drama film directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi and written by Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe. It follows a theatre director (played by Hidetoshi Nishijima), who directs a multilingual production of Uncle Vanya while dealing with the death of his wife (Reika Kirishima). It is based on Haruki Murakami's short story of the same name and other stories from his 2014 collection Men Without Women. Tōko Miura, Park Yu-rim, Jin Dae-yeon, Sonia Yuan, Ahn Hwitae, Perry Dizon, Satoko Abe, and Masaki Okada also star.
Drive My Car had its world premiere at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for the Palme d'Or and won three awards, including Best Screenplay. The film received widespread critical acclaim with praise towards Hamaguchi's direction and screenplay; many declared it the best film of 2021. It was nominated for four awards at the 94th Academy Awards, winning Best International Feature Film, and received numerous other accolades. Drive My Car was the first Japanese film to receive a Best Picture nomination. It has since been called one of the best films of the 2020s and of the 21st century.
Plot
Stage actor and director Yūsuke Kafuku lives in Tokyo with his wife Oto, a screenwriter who conceives her stories during sex and narrates them to him. He learns his lines by listening to tapes recorded by Oto, while driving his red Saab 900 Turbo. After Yūsuke performs in Waiting for Godot, Oto introduces him to young television star Kōji Takatsuki. Yūsuke returns home early one day and finds his wife having sex with Kōji, but does not disturb them. After a car crash, Yūsuke discovers he has glaucoma in one eye and must take eyedrops to prevent blindness. One day, Oto asks to have a serious conversation with Yūsuke. After he spends the day driving alone, Yūsuke returns home to find Oto dead from a brain hemorrhage. After the funeral, Yūsuke breaks down while performing the title role in Uncle Vanya.
Two years later, Yūsuke accepts a residency in Hiroshima to direct a multilingual production of Uncle Vanya. The theatre festival requires that he be chauffeured in his own car for insurance reasons, and he eventually bonds with his reserved young driver, Misaki Watari. With the help of dramaturge Gong Yoon-su, Yūsuke casts a diverse group of actors to perform in their native languages. He is impressed by Lee Yoo-na, a mute actress who communicates in Korean Sign Language, and he also unexpectedly casts Kōji as Uncle Vanya.
After a rehearsal, Kōji invites Yūsuke for a drink, where the young actor pushes against harsh assessments of his character but admits to his unrequited love for Oto. He scolds someone for taking a photo of him. Yoon-su invites Yūsuke and Misaki to dinner with his wife, who is revealed to be Yoo-na. Driving home, Misaki tells Yūsuke about driving her abusive mother for long hours at a young age. They later visit a garbage facility, where Misaki explains that she drove garbage trucks after leaving her hometown when a landslide destroyed her home and killed her mother.
Drinking with Kōji again, Yūsuke reveals that he thinks he can no longer play Vanya himself, and suggests that Kōji's lack of self-control is a personal weakness but a strength as an actor. After Kōji slips away to confront a man taking photos of him, Misaki drives them home. Yūsuke reveals that he and Oto lost their young daughter, who would now be Misaki's age; Oto's gift for telling stories after sex was a bond that helped them both cope. Though he knew of his wife's affairs, Yūsuke believes she still loved him, and Kōji shares one of Oto's stories that Yūsuke never heard in its entirety.
The police interrupt a rehearsal and arrest Kōji, as the man he attacked has died from his injuries. Given two days to consider whether to take over as Vanya or else cancel the production, Yūsuke asks Misaki to take him to her childhood home in Hokkaido. Yūsuke shares his guilt for not coming home to face the discussion Oto wanted to have, which might have allowed him to save her life. Misaki reveals that she escaped the landslide but chose not to pull her mother from the wreckage, receiving a scar on her cheek she has chosen not to have treated. They visit the snowy remains of Misaki's childhood home and hug as they both confront their shared grief.