General discussion and analysis of the main characters and principal themes in “Drive My Car”.

 

Reflections on “Drive My Car”

Directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi

Written by Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe

Based on a short story by Haruki Murakami

Starring Hidetoshi Nishijima, Toko Miura, Reika Kirishima

 

The film opens with a forty-minute prologue of sorts, incorporating scenes that capture the essence of the relationship between actor and director Yusuke and his wife Oto.

They share a creative bond in that sexual stimulation helps Oto create storylines which she shares with her husband and which they go on to develop together.

We learn also that Oto feels her life serves little purpose and that she thinks she will leave behind little of worth by way of legacy. She feels she is caught in an existentially pointless cycle of life in which it seems intimacy and creativity may be used as a means of seeking temporary fulfilment and this may lend spirit to her colourless and uninspiring relationship with Yusuke.

There is no passion with Yusuke and, perhaps because she is unfulfilled, she sleeps with other men in an attempt to fill the void in her life, and Yusuke is aware of her actions but he says nothing. Oto will even commit the ultimate infidelity of sharing one of the stories co-created with Yusuke with a young actor with whom Yusuke will eventually work.

Although superficially happy and wanting for nothing, at her core Oto is overwhelmed by a sense of pointlessness and she is bordering on depression. These feelings are undoubtedly aggravated by the death of her child some time before, an event that may in part explain Yusuke’s impassivity. One wonders if they see the creative process they share as some vain attempt at replacing the sense of purpose and fulfilment bringing up their child might have given them both.

Oto dies suddenly and unexpectedly from a brain haemorrhage, leaving Yusuke bereft and struggling to come to terms with questions and issues raised by his wife’s conduct and death. These range from existential questions concerning the fragility of life and the randomness of death to relational issues such as the part we play in others’ lives and how well we can truly know a person and understand the workings of others’ minds. Can we be truly sure of and trust another’s feelings? Yusuke feels he has failed his wife and he is responsible to some degree for her death, if only by omission or through vague feelings of inadequacy, but to what extent is he truly responsible? Will he ever come to terms with his feelings of loss and guilt, or the guilt he feels if he doesn’t think about her?

All these issues and more, regarding the nature and truth behind relationships and the human condition, are explored in Anton Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya”, a version of which Yusuke is invited to direct at a theatre festival some two years after losing his wife.

Yusuke is enormously fond of his red Saab (a make which perhaps suggests the existential Nordic mindset), but he is forced by the festival management to accept a personal driver (a young woman, Misake) for insurance purposes. Yusuke and Misake, who is the age his daughter would have been had she lived, gradually build trust and a bond, sharing inner thoughts and painful past experiences.

Yusuke is helped by Misake to see his wife holistically, i.e., like all of us, Oto was a complex person and should not be reduced to a set of characteristics or facets that fit another’s view and judgment of her. Misake persuades or allows Yusuke to see that Oto loved him and she sought comfort in the arms of others. The one does not diminish or preclude the other. He has to learn to accept the past and his situation, and move on. Our purpose is not to dwell interminably on the past but to live and survive despite painful experience.

In the same way, Misake, scarred psychologically and physically by various events in her past, feels she contributed to the death of her mother by not taking action to save her and this hangs heavily on her conscience. Yusuke is able to comfort Misake and offer her solace and support by repeating her own advice to accept what is done, with all its pain, guilt and responsibility, and consign it to the past. We should not torture ourselves with matters from the past – which may be quite unfathomable – but rather, after a period of reflection or grieving, focus on and appreciate the present while doing our best to make it work.

They console one another like father and daughter, each helping the other to accept and come to terms with pain, guilt, responsibility and other nagging doubts and regrets, and not allow events of the past to cast their shadow on the present, and as such they may well offer guidance for society as a whole.

At the end of the film, Misake is seen driving Yusuke’s red Saab. We don’t see him but clearly his influence persists as we see her driving happily on the road of life, dealing with whatever comes her way, her scars from the past much diminished and she is living for the present.

This is a beautifully observed, if long and leisurely-paced, study of the human condition, our desire or need of purpose and fulfilment and the roles we can play in one another’s lives, offering understanding, comfort and love, but also inflicting pain, responsibility and guilt.

I found the film intense and laboured at times, yet it was engaging and worthwhile. For me, it lacked pace and a certain lightness of touch that might have enlivened proceedings rather than pursue more or less a single register throughout, and a different balance might have lent even greater impact to the many scenes of pathos and poignancy, but I certainly found it stimulating and thought-provoking.

 

My thanks for taking the time to read this article. I hope you found it of some value.

 

Stuart Fernie (stuartfernie@yahoo.co.uk)

Reflections on characters and existential themes in Matt Reeves’ “The Batman”

 

Reflections on “The Batman”

Directed by Matt Reeves

Written by Matt Reeves and Peter Craig

Starring Robert Pattinson, Zoe Kravitz, Jeffrey Wright et al

 

First and foremost, this is a dystopian film noir that features Batman as the audience’s principal investigator and representative in a world or society with crumbling moral values and a population bordering on despair.

This society plays as large a part in the film as any of the characters and allows exploration of the truly existential background of the Batman universe, as opposed to those more commercial, heroic and perhaps more caricatured incarnations we have seen previously.

Here, we are presented with a society in full urban and moral decay. Settings are dull, dilapidated and rapidly deteriorating while the characters are often disillusioned, even morose, and appear to have largely abandoned principle, values and hope to join the rat race in an attempt to ensure survival.

It is in this atmosphere of moral abandonment and physical decay that the Batman operates.

Like all of us, Batman is the product of a combination of his environment, his experience and his character. His billionaire parents are killed in this essentially lawless domain and eventually he comes to roam the streets meting out vengeance on those who would commit violent crime and abuse innocent citizens. Wearing a mask and a bat outfit, he seeks to strike a frisson of fear and trepidation into the hearts of wrong-doers by developing a mystique and secreting himself in the shadows while serving brutal, even vicious, retribution on behalf of criminals’ victims. He battles the corrupt directly rather than seek political or administrative solutions. The Batman’s actions are fed by personal loss, anger and a desire to enforce punishment rather than seek high-minded justice.

Thus, not just his existence but his outlook and objectives are formed and perhaps even tarnished by the ongoing moral decay and despair that surround him. He is necessarily blinkered and unable to achieve the broader vision of idealism as he makes it clear he trusts no-one, with the exception of Gordon, and he is worn down by the constant attrition of corrupt circumstances while also being spurred on by the constant reliving of past pain and a desire for reckoning. However, subjectivity and isolation can lead to errors in judgment and excess, issues the Batman will come to recognise.

Gotham may represent society in its true, if underlying, state. Here, morality does not exist and Gotham’s political, commercial and social leaders have by and large accepted the power-grabbing truth behind the façade of convention and respectability.

Only a handful of citizens are willing to offer any challenge and they include the Riddler…

In this film the antagonists are not cartoonish, exaggerated proponents of evil but are instead relatively realistic characters with outlooks and grievances often created or compounded, fairly or unfairly, by a collision of social issues and their temperament, and so, just like the Batman, they may be viewed largely as the product of the social environment that has been allowed to develop.

Of course, this perspective was previously broached in Todd Phillips’ intriguing and insightful “Joker”.

Riddler’s stated purpose is at first glance admirable – to expose truth and denounce lies and corruption. Of course, his methods involve murder and mayhem and cannot be countenanced, but we and the Batman may have some sympathy and understanding for his purpose and motives. Just as the Batman has a dark side, the Riddler may have some right on his side. If the Batman is a victim of past wrongs and societal failures, so, too, is the Riddler, and both are driven by an at times misguided sense of justice.

Indeed, in a sense, each owes his existence to Renewal, the idealistic social project proposed by billionaire Thomas Wayne which collapsed shortly after Wayne’s murder, but not before Wayne himself tarnished it by indulging, somewhat ironically, in some underhand dealings to try to ensure its success.

Renewal may be viewed as the ultimate example of the eternal conflict between opposing moral viewpoints. No-one is perfect or impervious to error or poor judgment. Each of us may be overwhelmed by temptation, self-absorption, an excess of self-belief or disillusion, but we need to keep aiming for idealistic objectives or we will end up with a culture similar to that in Gotham.

The Batman focused on battling the corrupt directly rather than lead social renewal through education, social care and commercial developments. Similarly, the Riddler takes his fight directly to those he considers directly responsible for pain and hardship. Each has reacted to personal misfortune and, driven by a personal perception of justice, each is determined to bring about some form of retribution.

It is only when the Batman hears the familiar words “I am vengeance” from the lips of one of the Riddler’s followers that he recognises similarities between them and he realises he must raise the bar. He must offer hope and set an example by helping his fellow man rather than merely seeking out vengeance and retribution. He is evolving from a self-absorbed self-declared righter of wrongs toward one who aims for the broader picture of fighting for humanity and justice.

Film noir explores the implications of lack of morality and will often offer up humanity and mutual respect as a solution. Here, we have a film that appears to suggest society is constructed around an eternal clash between character flaws and weaknesses, and aspiration to a system of ethics greater than nihilism, even if the resulting code is only man-made.

This dark and relatively serious treatment will not appeal to all but I found its invitation to reflect on the structure of society and its values, along with society’s influence on character development, quite intriguing and absorbing.

 

My thanks for taking the time to read this article. I hope you found it of some value.

Stuart Fernie (stuartfernie@yahoo.co.uk)