#i loterralllyyyy am I AWE

[cocksuki2]

i just watched the movie drive my car and it was so beyond fantastic. that film is incredible.

not only is the cinematography absolutely beautiful, capturing the ordinary moments in life in a way that is both captivating and real, but the symbolism used in it is both rich and provides a deeper reading of the story. i truly am astounded at this film.

(fyi that this is gonna include spoilers for the movie below the cut so if you plan on watching it… don’t look.)

the use of the car as a motif for the resentment kafuku holds for his late wife was absolutely superb. the film’s relationship to death and the concept of death and the ideas presented about kafuku’s loss of control through the vehicle were so well done and so delightfully subtle.

it starts with a small car accident he gets into after discovering his wife’s unfaithfulness that spurs him to be checked by a doctor. he’s diagnosed with glaucoma in one eye, a progressive disease which slowly takes away the ability to see, and is told that he will eventually be unable to drive but that he can slow the damage by using eye drops regularly. the doctor says “you may doubt that it’s working, but without them you’ll be blind.” which I think is such an incredible motif for the slow healing that comes with infidelity as well as death.

he drives his car and purposefully commutes long distances to run lines, using his time in the car as a way to get lost in whatever play he is working on. kafuku keeps it in great condition, as it is 15 years old and has never had a problem (similar to his marriage before the death of his daughter and discovering his wife’s infidelity).

kafuku’s wife then dies suddenly before he is able to confront her about her infidelity, resulting in him bottling those emotions as a result of him feeling as if things were left unresolved.

two years after the death of his wife, kafuku takes a job and finds out that it will not allow him to drive due to a previous incident with it he company and he is, at first, resistant to the idea. despite the fact that he can still practice the lines of the play, it is a loss of control that he cannot come to terms with. the driver is a 23 year old woman named misaki, the age his daughter would be had she survived to adulthood. in her, he finds the resolution for his marriage in the ability to share his loss of control.

the film uses the car as a representation of the resentment he holds for his wife and as the film progresses, he worries less and less about its condition and his control over it.

perhaps the most striking example of this is after he confronts one of the men his wife slept with, takatsuki, in the back of the car. he’s an actor in the play and though things seem amicable through the conversation (as two years have passed since her death), it is evident that tension within kafuku is mounting. when takatsuki leaves the car, kafuku then proceeds to sit in the front seat for the first time since misaki became his driver. he offers her a cigarette in the car and it is fantastic symbolism of the beginning of his journey to letting go of his resentment.

kafuku is then forced to act in the play himself, as the night that takatsuki and him conversed in the car, takatsuki had beat a man who later died in the hospital (divine retribution for the adultery he knowingly committed, as is common with films and their villains tho I could talk about this character separately for a very long time). as the story progresses, he continues to give up these little points of control over it until eventually, he is implied to have given the car to misaki, finally letting go of his anger and resentment after performing in the play.

through the film, he’s also seen using the eye drops at various points, though as the story continues, he is shown doing it less and less. it’s beautiful symbolism for staving off confronting the anger, hurt, resentment, and grief he holds for his late wife. there is love there but in acknowledging the love he chooses to ignore the things that would make his grieving process less simple. it’s the use of medicine and his progressive disease in the story that demonstrates his willingness to confront those feelings and the car which represents his willingness to let them go and continue on.

overall, the film is fucking fantastic. it’s an incredibly human story with characters whose plights are dealt with in a manner that is fitting of their abilities. it’s relatively symbolic and if you’re not paying attention certain aspects of it might fly over your head but it is overall a masterful use of symbolism in cinema. it’s incredible. if you haven’t seen it, please watch it.