A patient, devastating drama about grief, performance, and the difficulty of truly knowing another person. Its long takes and quiet accumulation of feeling reward viewers who like emotionally precise, contemplative cinema.
Yusuke Kafuku, a stage actor and director, still unable, after two years, to cope with the loss of his beloved wife, accepts to direct Uncle Vanya at a theater festival in Hiroshima. There he meets Misaki, an introverted young woman, appointed to drive his car. In between rides, secrets from the past and heartfelt confessions will be unveiled.
Director
Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Cast
Hidetoshi Nishijima, Toko Miura, Masaki Okada
Curator Review
Verdict
A patient, devastating drama about grief, performance, and the difficulty of truly knowing another person. Its long takes and quiet accumulation of feeling reward viewers who like emotionally precise, contemplative cinema.
Best for
viewers who enjoy slow-burn character studies
fans of grief and relationship dramas
people drawn to theater and performance narratives
audiences who appreciate long, reflective films with subtle emotional payoffs
Skip if
you want a fast plot or constant incident
you dislike long runtimes and deliberate pacing
you prefer emotionally direct, highly expository storytelling
you need a movie that stays conventionally dramatic throughout
Overview
Drive My Car is the kind of film that seems to expand as you watch it. What begins as a study of mourning and routine gradually opens into something larger: a meditation on language, performance, and the ways people carry one another’s pain without ever fully understanding it.
Worth noting
Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s direction is patient and exacting, letting conversations breathe until they become revelations. The film’s structure, including its extended opening, can feel unhurried at first, but that slowness is the point: it creates space for silence, repetition, and the small shifts that make emotional truth feel earned.
Bottom line
What lingers most is the film’s tenderness. It is sad, but not bleak; observant, but never cold. By the end, it has built an unusually moving sense of connection between strangers, lovers, collaborators, and the stories they tell themselves to keep going.
Top Letterboxd reviews
David Chen (4.5★) · 12423 likes
You know this shit is good when they don't drop the opening credits on you until 40 minutes in. Sorry, it's just a golden rule of movies.
demi adejuyigbe · 9911 likes
my therapist likes to stop me whenever i criticize myself with the word ‘should,' that i should feel some way, that i should have done something. we stop and dig into this statement until i get to the root of it and try to understand how i've internalized whatever idea or feeling or action is meant to be "correct" or "normal." it's a hard thing for me to do because it's always easiest to lightly lean on myself as the
Patrick Willems (4.5★) · 8403 likes
I know there’s way more important stuff here but I have to point out that the 2-door red Saab is one of the best movie cars I’ve ever seen. Just a truly excellent car. Lots of character.
David Sims (5★) · 6677 likes
smokin cigs out the sunroof together
Chris Evangelista (4★) · 6005 likes
That shot of the two of them holding their cigarettes up through the sunroof is an all-timer.