“Drive My Car” puts you in the front seat of Yusuke’s (Hidetoshi Nishijima) loss of his wife — a sorrowful story that suggests we should all look inside ourselves to really know someone else. In a dramatic scene that has Yusuke questioning his lost love, he’s left in silence smoking a cigarette with his driver, Misaki (Toko Miura), as they drive along the highway. “I really love these two characters and how they start out as total strangers. They’re both the type of people who don’t necessarily open themselves up easily and little by little their relationship blossoms,” says director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi. “This moment I felt really depicts their relationship well as it’s very effective and metaphorical. They’re not extremely close physically but not far apart either. It shows they support each other and they’re able to connect with the outside environment while keeping the smoke out of the car Yusuke so cherishes. I think the image condenses their relationship within this one frame.”
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