'Drive My Car' Wins For Best International Film At Oscar 2022

JAKARTA - The Japanese film Drive My Car won the best international film award at the 94th Academy Awards, Sunday local time. This film is adapted from Haruki Murakami's collection of short stories entitled "Men Without Women". The film "Drive My Car" presents a travel film wrapped in mystery, love, loss, and acceptance.

"Drive My Car" centers on theatrical actor and director played by Hidetoshi Nishijima, who is forced to confront the demons beneath the surface of his seemingly perfect marriage after being rocked by an affair and his wife dies.

Quoted from ANTARA, Two years later, and still struggling to cope with his loss, he travels to Hiroshima to produce a multilingual version of "Uncle Vanya" and is assigned as the driver, Misaki (Miura Toko), and the two begin to talk about their journey.

In the 2022 Oscars, "Drive My Car" received four nominations, namely best picture, best director for Ryusuke Hamaguchi, best international feature film, and best adaptation.

"Drive My Car" set a record as the first Japanese film to be nominated for the best film category. Meanwhile, Hamaguchi is the third Japanese director to be nominated, following Hiroshi Teshigahara in 1965 and Akira Kurosawa 20 years later.

On receiving the award, director Hamaguchi thanked a number of film production companies for "bringing my car to the United States."

Speaking to Reuters in Cannes, when the film won the award, he said "What I find interesting is how intimacy is brought into the car through the long conversations between the characters."