Film of the week: Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy

Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy is the little brother of Drive My Car, the talkie with which Ryûsuke Hamaguchi triumphed at Cannes and in Hollywood. Never underestimate little brothers.

Ryûsuke Hamaguchi cannot drive. He tried three times and had an accident twice. But he is a great filmmaker, no writer has in the past eighteen months managed to achieve what he has. The most striking achievement was Drive My Car, an adaptation of a short story by master storyteller Haruki Murakami.

During daily drives in a red Saab 900, a theatre director and his female driver lay bare their souls. The screenplay for this mysterious, sensual, unhurried talkie about grief, regret, sex and the passage of time won Hamaguchi several awards at the Cannes Festival. Even more spectacular, but equally well-deserved, were the four Oscar nominations for best film, best international film, best screenplay and best direction. Hamaguchi is now the owner of the statuette for best international film.

While Drive My Car is still doing the rounds in the Brussels arthouse cinemas, another film by the Japanese revelation is on the incoming. Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, which last year was awarded the Silver Bear at the Berlinale, can be described as the little brother of Drive My Car, just as clever and a little more light-hearted and romantic.

Fascinated by the essential role that coincidence plays in our lives, Hamaguchi has created three short stories in which the unexpected and our sometimes idiosyncratic imagination play a major role. In 2019, he made two films with a minimal crew. When production of Drive My Car was halted for months due to the pandemic, he called the gang back together to film a third story. Together they gave form to the sweet, lovely, poetic triptych Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy.

In “Magic (or Something Less Assuring)”, a fashion model finds out that her best friend's new boyfriend is her former lover, who never forgot her. In “Door Wide Open”, a disgruntled student convinces his married lover to seduce one of his professors in the hope of discrediting him. In “Once Again”, Natsuko and Aya both mistake each other for a former classmate. They get to talking and help each other express their feelings by playing the part of the person with whom they were mistaken.

In all three cases, the heroines have to make unexpected decisions with far-reaching consequences. Hamaguchi says that the talkie films of Frenchman Éric Rohmer, known for his Contes moraux and his Contes des quatre saisons, are a source of inspiration. Soon he himself will be the reference. Empathy and sensitivity at its finest.

Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
JP, dir.: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, act.: Kotone Furukawa, Katsuki Mori, Fusako Urabe