“Drive My Car” has made history. It is the first Japanese film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, as well as Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director and Best International Feature.
Directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi and based on a short story by world-renowned Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami, the film has already won numerous awards from the Cannes Film Festival and BAFTA, among others.
I had a chance to talk to Hamaguchi exclusively and get to know who he is.
Izumi Hasegawa: The film won many awards and you have already collected many statues. Now that the film has Academy Award nominations in four categories, what is your feeling now?
Ryusuke Hamaguchi: I’m just incredibly happy about this, of course. There’s many awards that you speak about, but I think you know, seeing the way the Japanese are reacting to the Academy Awards, that really shows and communicates to me how big of a deal this really is. And I’m very happy for this to be happening to the work that I was a part of.
I’ve watched the other films that are nominated and am just thinking about the fact that our film is among these works. I’m very honored about that. And at the end of the day, I think I’m just really looking forward to what the results will be. Um, I feel almost like a parent watching over the work to see where it will go.
IH: I have watched many films as a film journalist as well as a movie fan, but with your film, I feel your extraordinary talent and intelligence from the screen. “Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy” is the first film I have watched among all of your films, and I was blown away. After I watched the film, I was sure that you would be an international sensation, and my prediction was right [laugh]. I was wondering what kind environment created…