Mourning and moving on with life

In the lead-up to the Oscars on March 27, the question was not whether the Japanese film Drive My Car would win, but which category. This adaptation of a short story by the renowned Japanese author Haruki Murakami is nominated for not only best picture, but also best director, best adapted screenplay, and best international feature film.

This meditative movie, running one minute short of three hours, takes viewers on a ride that navigates pain with the help of human connections and the arts. It has already accumulated accolades that include Cannes’ best screenplay and best non-English language film of the Golden Globes and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

Behind the wheel of his red Saab 900 Aero coupe is where Yûsuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima) feels at home. The middle-aged actor has a habit of practicing his lines while driving and listening to a cassette his wife made. In the tape, she reads out all the parts of Anton Che­khov’s play Uncle Vanya, but leaves out the title character’s lines. Yûsuke fills in those pauses.

Two years after his wife’s sudden death, Yûsuke drives from Tokyo to Hiroshima to serve as a stage director of Uncle Vanya. The theater festival organizers assign him a chauffeur: Misaki Watari (Tôko Miura), a hardened 23-year-old woman who dresses more like a ­middle-aged male cabbie in her loose jacket and trousers.

As Misaki shuttles Yûsuke around in his vintage car, they embark on a journey of helping each other process the family traumas they’ve buried deep inside.

Uncle Vanya is an indispensable part of Drive My Car, which affirms the arts as a vehicle for truth and inclusion. Che­k­­­hov’s play echoes back truths to Yûsuke about his life that he needs to wrestle with. This film also depicts a multilingual staging of the play as the actors perform their roles in Japanese, Mandarin, and Korean Sign Language.

Not rated, this movie is available on HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video rental, and in select theaters. Although subtle in portraying Yûsuke and Misaki’s guilt and despair, it is not shy about sex. It opens with a bed scene, one among a few graphic takes, and contains some nudity.

There’s a common saying about the Japanese’s syncretic approach to religion: They are born Shinto, marry Christian, and die Buddhist. Drive My Car includes a Buddhist memorial service, along with a gripping part of Uncle Vanya that references God: It is a plea to endure suffering to arrive at God’s eternal joy and rest.

While this film is not Christian, it mentions the God of Christianity who understands human misery and pities those who suffer. This is remarkable, especially for a country where only 1 percent of the population is Christian, and whose pop culture rarely includes Christianity.