Drive My Car Review & Ending Explained: What’s Happened?
“Drive My Car Review & Ending”. Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s brilliant drama Drive My Car is undoubtedly one of the most surprising Best Picture nominees of recent years. However, the film is well deserving of its spot on the list. It could even be considered a dark horse for the Golden statuette.
The film is a three-hour adaptation of the Haruki Murakami story of the same title. It’s a meditation on communication, grief, and Anton Chekhov and features many memorable scenes with perfectly pitched performances.
The ending is unforgettable, and we have all the details below to help you unpack it. Continue reading to learn the Drive My Car ending.
DRIVE MY CAR MOVIE SYNOPSIS AND SUMMARY
Drive My Car is about Yusuke (Hidetoshi Nishijima), a theater director in mourning who recently lost Oto (Reika Kirishima) to a sudden cerebral hemorrhage. Oto’s death was 2 years ago, and Yusuke discovered she was cheating on him. Yusuke is a multilingual theatre director and is invited to a residency at Hiroshima’s theater festival. This story centers on the casting and rehearsal process, which is crucial for the director’s ambitious recreation of Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov.
Drive My Car also features two other important characters. Misaki Watari, a 24-year-old driver who is often quiet, is assigned to drive Yusuke to and from his temporary home that is just a one-hour drive from the festival. Koshi Takatsuki, Masaki Okada – Koshi Takatsuki is a young actor who traveled all the way from Hiroshima to play Yusuke.
Slowly, Takatsuki’s and Yusuke’s history is revealed. As Yusuke and Misaki find solace in each other’s pasts and the regrets that haunt them every day, Misaki becomes a quiet companion. Tensions between the actor/director build and they are submerged with new revelations as past wounds are reopened. Drive My Car becomes a melancholic and tender way that grief follows us around. This allows us to experience a deeply intimate and cathartic moment where real and reel co-exist and give rise to new meanings for those who are able to see through.
WHY DID OTO CHEAT ON YUSUKE
We know that Oto and Yusuke were a happy family until their daughter died from pneumonia. Although it isn’t explicitly stated, Yusuke and Takatsuki discuss how Oto lost the ability to think about screenplays and write them down after her daughter’s death.
It is clear that Oto suffered more trauma and loss than Yusuke. After falling into depression, she discovered that her mind still held many stories. They only came out after she had sex. She didn’t remember them when she woke up.
Although this does not necessarily mean that she was cheating on Kafuku; there is a curiosity and a desire to find out how the stories would have changed with a different partner. Her cheating can be attributed to her deep flaws and brokenness. Broken people are always looking for ways to fix themselves. She might have done this to find some sort of solution and closure in her younger Takatsuki.
WHY DID YUSUKE NOT CONFRONT OTO ABOUT HER CHEATING ON HIM?
Yusuke realizes Oto is cheating when one of his flights is canceled unannounced, and he must return home. He hears sounds coming from his living room as he returns home with his key. He sneakily moves ahead to find his wife, who is in mid-coitus while Takatsuki, a young actor, approaches him. Yusuke, however, doesn’t confront them immediately and instead, slowly emerges from the house and gets into his car and drives away. After he has checked in at a hotel, he lies to Oto about his destination and is completely casual about his day.
Yusuke’s calm and laid-back personality is what I believe explains why he doesn’t want to confront. Yusuke is not one of those people who reacts or gets agitated when there’s something wrong. We can sense that he is preparing to confront his wife, and feeling some unseen frustration. This heaviness can be metaphorically expressed by his accident and subsequent problems with his eyesight.
Drive My Car is moved by the fact that his wife died of cerebral hemorrhage just moments before they were supposed to have “a talk.” This allows us to discuss the slow, debilitating effects of not speaking to someone when we should and the unspoken guilt that hangs around our necks like an Albatross.
WHAT SCANDAL RUINED TAKATSUKI’S LIFE AND LEFT HIM WITH A BLOATED IMPULSIVE EXPLICIT ANGST?
Takatsuki has been described as someone who is open to engaging with others. Yusuke is the first time we meet him. Oto introduces him to Yusuke as a promising young actor. We see him again during his sexual encounter with Oto. Although it doesn’t have any impact on the viewer, the young man clearly has an affinity for the opposite sex and views them as a kind of foray or adventure.
This is what happens when he auditions for a role with a costar. We know there is something happening between them, even though they don’t speak the same language. This tells us that he’s impulsive and distracted when making decisions. We also see him getting very angry at passers-by who take his picture. We learn later that he is now a freelancer after he was accused of having sexual relations with a minor.
The third act, especially the one before Uncle Vanya’s final stage performance, shows that he is arrested by the police for previously assaulting a person clicking his photos. Yusuke is released from custody and the victim is taken into police custody.
WHY DID YUSUKE NOT CAST HIMSELF AS UNCLE VANYA IN THE PLAY HE IS DIRECTING?
The festival organizers and the other actors who will be cast in the play are puzzled as to why Yusuke did not choose to play the title role, despite being well-versed in the subject.
He can be seen practicing lines from the play while he drives or sits in his car. But when it comes time to perform the part, Yusuke prefers Takatsuki to himself. This question has a simple answer. Yusuke mentions that Uncle Vanya’s story has an existential impact on the person who is telling it. The story feels familiar to him because it is a result of his life’s major losses and also because he regrets. He decides to let Takatsuki carry the burden of the text.
Although it isn’t an act of revenge per se, it certainly feels like one.
Also read: The Batman Movie 2022 Review & Ending Explained What’s Happened ?
DRIVE MY CAR MOVIE THEMES
Drive My Car is a lot about Yusuke riding in his beloved Red Saab 900. Although two of the drivers are very different in their characteristic traits, their adventures are quite similar.
Ryusuke Hamaguchi, the director of the film, tries to get us to know them more slowly throughout the film. Both Yusuke and Misaki have experienced the loss of a close friend or family member. To distract themselves from the pain, they kept busy with one or another thing to keep them busy. It’s driving from one place to another for Misaki and Yusuke. For Yusuke it’s finding refuge with his art.
The onward adventure they take together comes down to the moment of total catharsis as the two of them drive to Misaki’s old home. They realize they are too busy trying to understand other people to pay much attention to their own inner world.
THE UNSEEN WEIGHT OF GUILT & REGRET
Yusuke and Misaki both carry the heavy weight of regret and guilt. Both Misaki and Yusuke have blamed themselves for the losses they have suffered in their lives. They have felt empty shells that cannot be filled with any destruction.
Drive My Car sees them confronting their guilt and remorse to help them heal from their broken and flawed lives. Misaki regrets not saving her mother from a landslide. She also speaks out about her mother’s dual personality, and how she only connected with one who was younger than her and understood her. One was an abusive mother who couldn’t comprehend the misery in her life.
Yusuke also feels guilty for his wife’s death. He didn’t resolve the issues with her, particularly the notion of her cheating on Yusuke. He was left with guilt for not making peace with her before she died.
ART AS A FORM OF CATHARSIS, SHIELD AND ESCAPE
Art is more than anything, it’s an escape. Escape from reality we struggle to understand or live with. In Drive My Car, Yusuke and Ryusuke Hamaguchi, the director, use it as a way to escape from their insecurities, guilt, and life.
I’m not sure if this is Hamaguchi but it is evident that his guilt over the loss of his character is filled by his inability to relate it to his play. Uncle Vanya and Waiting for Godot are two pieces that make up the core of this story and help to carry it forward. Yusuke’s feelings of loss and loneliness are somehow filled by his relating to the sufferings of the characters in the play.
He uses this art form to try to hide the guilt and trauma he is trying to suppress. Yusuke puts on plays that are multilingual. Art can be both cathartic, as well as moving, because all languages have a common language. Director Hamaguchi also criticizes the idea that people don’t watch ‘foreign language films’ because they’re not in the same dialect they speak. They argue that they still have a right to have a bed in their lives.
DRIVE MY CAR EXPLAINED
After Yusuke and Misaki have had their chance to face their guilt, the film shows Yusuke playing the role of Uncle Vanya. The film reaches its rousing finale. We don’t get to see the film’s appreciation or the impact it has on his life. The last sequence, however, is set in Korea, and, from what it appears, in the COVID-era.
Misaki is seen buying groceries at a local grocery store before stepping out towards Yusuke’s Red Saab 900. Yusuke is not visible, but we can see him sitting in the backseat.
There are two possible interpretations of this ending.
We can either assume Yusuke lost his vision and Misaki received the car. Or, Yusuke gave Misaki the car after she told him she liked the car a lot.
The second possibility is more likely, as Yusuke would be able to gift the car to Misaki and move on from his past. It was the only thing that he had that reconnected him with it.
Similar to the previous scene, Misaki also removes the mask from the car towards the end. We see that the scar on her face has disappeared. This can be seen as a sign she has finally let go of her scars and past and is moving on with her life.
She also looks just like the dog she loved and saw at the couple’s house, which is a sign that she has moved past her soulless, empty existence. You can see this in her big smile as she drives away.