Undoubtedly, one of the highlights of the imminent award ceremony of —not all— the Oscars to be held next Sunday the 27th is in the category of best international film, among whose nominated titles are two feature films that have made history even before the distribution of statuettes; being the first of them ‘Flee’, which opts for the awards for the best international film, the best documentary and the best animated film.
The second, and better positioned in the pools to take the cat to the water, is ‘Drive My Car’; the last work of a Ryusuke Yamaguchi which, in addition, is a candidate for the award for best direction, becoming the first Japanese filmmaker to receive the nomination since Akira Kurosawa did so 36 years ago for his impeccable work on ‘Ran’.
A “regular” movie
‘Drive My Car’ reaches the last appointment of the awards season —in which it also competes for best film and best adapted screenplay— after having won the BAFTA and the Golden Globe for non-English speaking film; making it obvious a success that, for its director, does not make much sense.
“The more I think about it, the less sure I am about it. But one thing I can say is that it is a very normal movie, about people who have different flaws and who are trying to have a better life. Loving someone or something is a way of to get it. But when we love someone, one day you lose or separate from that person. It’s almost like an oxymoron. That’s the aspect that makes this movie normal, which is about losing and getting love.”
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There is no doubt that these are good times for Asian filmmakers. The success of ‘The Squid Game’, ‘Nomadland’ or ‘Minari’ —Youn Yuh-jung received the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress well deserved— are good examples of this. Although, for Hamaguchi, the production that opened the season it was Bong Joon-ho’s ‘Parasite’
“I think the reason why this film has been accepted around the world is that the performances and the voices of the actors are believable. We, and the next generation of Asian films, are walking through the door that ‘Parasite’ opened” .
Via | Guardian