Drive My Car (2021)
88%RT Audience Score: 78%
Awards & Nominations: Won 1 Oscar
73 wins & 95 nominations total
Drive My Car’s imposing runtime holds a rich, patiently engrossing drama that reckons with self-acceptance and regret.
Drive My Car is like a long, scenic drive with a friend who’s telling you a story. It’s slow-paced, but you don’t mind because the scenery is beautiful and the story is captivating. You might not understand everything that’s happening, but you’re happy to be along for the ride. And when it’s over, you feel like you’ve been on a journey. Plus, the soundtrack is pretty great.
Production Company(ies)
Distributor
Sideshow / Janus Films
Release Type
Streaming, Streaming (HBO Max), Theatrical, Theatrical (Limited)
Filming Location(s)
Hiroshima City, Hiroshima, Japan
MPAA / Certificate
Unrated
Year of Release
2021
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Dolby Digital
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Aspect ratio:1.85 : 1
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Runtime:2h 59m
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Language(s):Japanese, English, Korean, Sign, Language, German, Mandarin, Tagalog, Korean, Indonesian
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Country of origin:Japan
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Nov 24, 2021 Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 2, 2022
Genre(s)
Drama
Keyword(s)
starring Hidetoshi Nishijima, Toko Miura, Reika Kirishima, Yoo-rim Park, Dae-Young Jin, Sonia Yuan, Janice Chan, directed by Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, written by Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Takamasa Oe, drama, box office performance, budget, reviewed by Danny Leigh, Tim Cogshell, Ty Burr, Maxell Rabb, David Stratton, Paul Byrnes, Sarah Ward, Juan José Beteta, Tom O’Brien, Erick Estrada, Elsa Fernández-Santos, MPAA rating, produced by Tsuyoshi Gorô, Misaki Kawamura, Osamu Kubota, Sachio Matsushita, Yoshito Nakabe, Keiji Okumura, Jin Suzuki, Teruhisa Yamamoto, Haruki Murakami’s short story, Best Screenplay, Uncle Vanya, theater festival, Hiroshima, red Saab 900, TV star, grief, loss, acceptance, peace, road movie, love, regret, self-acceptance, haunting mysteries, past, character studies, Chekov play, metaphor, human condition, reflective power of art, family dinner, garbage site, backseat monologue, decoding a story, human drama, observational moments
Worldwide gross: $15,362,861
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $16,586,340
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,782
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 1,808,761
US/Canada gross: $2,352,240
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $2,558,312
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,975
US/Canada opening weekend: $13,775
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $14,982
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,605
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): NA
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): NA
Production budget ranking: NA
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
ROI to date (est.): NA
ROI ranking: NA
Toko Miura – Misaki Watari
Reika Kirishima – Oto, Kafuku’s Wife
Yoo-rim Park – Lee Yoon-a
Dae-Young Jin – Kon Yoon-su
Sonia Yuan – Janice Chan
Ryûsuke Hamaguchi – Director, Writer
Tsuyoshi Gorô – Producer
Misaki Kawamura – Producer
Osamu Kubota – Producer
Sachio Matsushita – Producer
Yoshito Nakabe – Producer
Keiji Okumura – Producer
Jin Suzuki – Producer
Teruhisa Yamamoto – Producer
Director(s)
Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
Writer(s)
Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Takamasa Oe
Producer(s)
Tsuyoshi Gorô, Misaki Kawamura, Osamu Kubota, Sachio Matsushita, Yoshito Nakabe, Keiji Okumura, Jin Suzuki, Teruhisa Yamamoto
Film Festivals
Cannes, Toronto
Awards & Nominations
Won 1 Oscar
73 wins & 95 nominations total
Academy Awards
Oscar Best International Feature Film Of The Year Winners, Oscar Nominees, Oscar Winners
All Critics (210) | Top Critics (45) | Fresh (203) | Rotten (7)
Director Ryusuke Hamaguchi makes it easy to stay put. The film passes at a glide.
March 24, 2022 | Rating: 4/5
Danny Leigh
Financial Times
TOP CRITIC
I really appreciated this film. It’s very slow moving and you have to stick with it.
March 12, 2022
Tim Cogshell
FilmWeek (KPCC – NPR Los Angeles)
TOP CRITIC
The pieces Hamaguchi assembles don’t seem to add up, and yet when it’s over you may feel that the whole is much, much larger than the sum of the parts, in ways beyond the power to articulate.
March 2, 2022 | Rating: 4/4
Ty Burr
Ty Burr’s Watch List
TOP CRITIC
Hamaguchi’s film shows that it will remain beautiful, and viewers will forget that they are not in the red Saab, and instead, they’re together, watching a movie.
February 23, 2022
Maxwelll Rabb
Chicago Reader
TOP CRITIC
It’s a well made, interesting film, but surely no masterpiece.
February 17, 2022 | Rating: 3/5
David Stratton
The Australian
TOP CRITIC
It’s mysterious, impenetrable, creeping forward on many fronts like a lava flow of ideas and nuance. It’s also throat-catchingly beautiful, as sad as a funeral, and wise in a way few films ever aspire to be.
February 12, 2022 | Rating: 4.5/5
Paul Byrnes
Sydney Morning Herald
TOP CRITIC
Drive My Car is intimate and detailed about every element of its on-screen voyage and its character studies, and also a road map to soulful, relatable truths.
June 25, 2022
Sarah Ward
Concrete Playground
A deliberate film with an abundance of stories, some unusual, some disruptive, but all break conventional schemes and produce a decelerated sensation against the rhythm of our everyday lives. [Full review in Spanish]
June 21, 2022
Juan José Beteta
Cinencuentro
“Drive My Car” is just as epic in its scope. Here, however, it’s emotional scope, revealing the kind of feelings that may be small and personal at the start but widen to become vast and universal by the time the film reaches its powerful conclusion.
June 16, 2022 | Rating: 9/10
Tom O’Brien
Next Best Picture
Hamaguchi turns a monotonous dialogue-heavy narrative into an explosion that carries us through the rest of the film. [Full review in Spanish]
June 13, 2022
Erick Estrada
Cinegarage
In its understated way, we’re witnessing one of the most extraordinary and profound movies of recent cinema, in which a wordsmith filmmaker like Hamaguchi wins us over with the power of silence. [Full review in Spanish]
June 8, 2022
Elsa Fernández-Santos
El Pais (Spain)
A beautifully wrapped quiet work of art that hits you when you least expect it. It’s a slow-burning arthouse vehicle about grief and love that unfolds over a three-hour run time.
May 31, 2022
Marriska Fernandes
Exclaim!…
Plot
After his wife’s death, a renowned stage actor and director is offered a job directing a production of Uncle Vanya at a theater festival in Hiroshima, where he meets a young woman who becomes his chauffeur and helps him confront painful truths from his past in Drive My Car.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
Nothing to add here about Drive My Car.
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