Hot on the heels of his Oscar-nominated hit Drive My Car, Ryusuke Hamaguchi is back with another naturalistic drama…
Director: Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Starring: Kotone Furukawa, Ayumu Nakajima, Hyunri
Running time: 121 minutes
Despite only being approximately five months since the release of Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s epic drama Drive My Car, we have already been blessed with the follow-up film from the Japanese auteur. Largely inspired by the works of Eric Rohmer, whose editor Hamaguchi met at a film festival prior to conceiving the idea of the film, Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy is a film made up of three separate short stories that cover themes of seduction, love and friendship through different chance encounters.
In the first story, titled Magic (or Something Less Assuring), we are introduced to Meiko, whose best friend is telling her about a new lover – someone who turns out to be an old lover of Meiko’s. For the second story, Door Wide Open, we learn of a mature student Nao who is convinced by a fellow student, and friend with benefits, to seduce his lecturer and use the recorded seduction as a blackmail to get revenge. Finally, in the last story, Once Again, we have a tale of two women, Natsuko and Aya. At first, they are believed to be old high school friends – during the course of their conversations, however, they both learn alarming things about their situation.
Unlike Hamaguchi’s previous two films, this one has a lighter and more airy tone to it, however, the musings on the human condition and our emotional attachments to each other are still deeply profound. Hamaguchi is no stranger to using well-placed comedic scenes in his films to lighten the mood, and this film is no different. The writing feels so naturalistic that at times you forget you are even watching a drama at all – it could be a documentary. All is in service to Hamaguchi’s ability to allow actors to improvise and influence the direction of their own characters, much in the ways of American auteurs such as Robert Altman and John Casavettes.
Alongside the captivating dialogue is the way that he and the cinematographer (Yukiko Iioka) actually frame the conversations that happen. In one of the first scenes, we are shown a conversation that happens in the back of a car which lasts for over six minutes. Instead of using shot-reverse-shot like most directors would, Hamaguchi places the camera in front of both actors so we can see both of their reactions and facial expressions throughout the entire scene. It never feels remotely boring and engages you the entire time. In each short film there is a very limited number of locations and characters making each one film like a sort of mini chamber drama. Conversations often feel very theatrical, creating what feel like large-scale dramas out of some very mundane scenarios.
A deeply humanist film that explores the soul in a way that hasn’t been done by cinema in a long time
Another example is a 25-minute long scene in which Nao is trying to seduce a lecturer and erotic novelist. Nao acts like she is a big fan of this book which is incredibly graphic and uses the language of the novel to flirt with the lecturer, mostly getting nowhere in an incredibly comedic fashion. Despite the scene being filmed entirely in a small office room, the use of blocking and impeccable writing allows for the conversation to move with an escalating amount of intensity as the ulterior motives of the characters are slowly revealed. The way that Hamaguchi grabs and holds your attention for such an extended period of time is fascinating. It is easily one of the most interesting and wonderful individual scenes put onto celluloid in a while.
All three of these stories look into the ideas of chance, fate and human connectivity: the unlikely chance that out of everyone in the world, someone’s best friend will fall in love with their ex-lover, consequently the fatalistic course that is destined to happen with intertwined lovers. Or the sporadic encounter of two long lost friends meeting for the first time in years, only to have their realities flipped around when they both work out the truth. Hamaguchi uses these stories to explore the desires, fears and contradictions of everyday people living their lives. It is obvious that he deeply cares about every single character he moulds as they are written with a great deal of nuance and love.
Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy is a deeply humanist film that explores the soul in a way that hasn’t been done by cinema in a long time. These three tales work in such a unique way in which each one builds upon the themes of the last, culminating in such a joyous experience that feels both extraordinarily relatable but also fantastical in some ways. Anyone who enjoyed Drive My Car or wants to experience a film that is destined to both pull on the heartstrings and make you laugh must absolutely go and see this film.
Did you know? The film was released in Denmark in July 2021, but was not released in Japanese cinemas until December of the same year.
Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy is in cinemas now
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