Under the Influence: Adaptation, Adultery, and Acceptance in Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya and Ryusuke Hamaguchi's Drive My Car

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• Under the Influence:Adaptation, Adultery, and Acceptance in Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya and Ryusuke Hamaguchi's Drive My Car
• Paul D. Reich (bio)

In A Theory of Adaptation, Linda Hutcheon defines adaptation in three ways: "an acknowledged transposition of a recognizable other work or works; a creative and an interpretative act of appropriation/salvaging; [and] an extended intertextual engagement with the adapted work."¹ Ryusuke Hamaguchi's 2021 film Drive My Car embraces all three of Hutcheon's definitions, often in surprising and compelling ways. Those familiar with the works of Haruki Murakami can not only trace the influences of the titular story, but two additional stories from the author's 2017 collection Men Without Women. However, it is arguable whether Hamaguchi explicitly "acknowledges" the "transposition" of Murakami's "Scheherazade" or "Kino" in his film. Hamaguchi expands what is merely a referent text in Murakami's "Drive My Car"—Anton Chekhov's 1897 play Uncle Vanya—into an additional, shaping textual influence.² This brings the total count of adapted texts in his one film to four. Viewers should not be surprised then at its nearly three-hour running time.

While each of the adapted texts have their own relationship with the film, Uncle Vanya has the most thorough and sustained one. It also works to satisfy most completely the second and third parts of Hutcheon's definition. With Chekhov's play, Hamaguchi is engaging in a "creative and an interpretative act of appropriation/salvaging" as he's performing "an extended intertextual engagement with the adapted work."³ The film can be divided into four acts, a nod to the traditional structure of Chekhovian dramas, including Uncle Vanya. Hamaguchi employs the play's dialogue [End Page 183] as background in the developing relationship between the film's protagonist—Yusuke Kafuku (played by Hidetoshi Nishijima)—and his driver—Misaki Watari (played by Toko Miura)—selecting key moments in Chekhov's work to act as critical commentary on the film's events. Most of the film's action also revolves around the rehearsal, staging, and first performance of the play. These moments work to address and resolve Kafuku's relationship with his deceased (and unfaithful) spouse, Oto, and join the work done in Murakami's short fiction. However, Hamaguchi pushes beyond Murakami's simple (and often dull) examinations of men in marital crisis to include, instead, women such as Lee Yoon-a (played by Park Yu-rim) who act to recover from her child's death. The director employs Uncle Vanya as a therapeutic device, one which the performers and audience can engage as they process loss and the guilt surviving often brings. Drive My Car reveals the healing power of theatre, both for actor and viewer.⁴

Act I: Adultery and Avoidance; or, Chekhov in Isolation

The film opens with an extended prologue—a first act of more than forty minutes before the title sequence begins—and much of this time is spent on the relationship between Kafuku and his wife. By all appearances, it's idyllic. Hamaguchi shows them in intimate moments, and viewers see the passion and love they have for one another. Both work in the entertainment industry—Kafuku a theatre actor, Oto a screenwriter—and are collaborative, supporters of each other's work. Chekhov's play appears early in the film as Kafuku prepares to leave for an extended trip. Oto (played by Reika Kirishima) hands him a tape, on which she has recorded all of Uncle Vanya's dialogue save Vanya's, who Kafuku will play in an upcoming production. As Kafuku enters his car, Hamaguchi fixes the camera on the Saab's cassette player, staying with this shot as the actor inserts the tape and starts the playback. There's a purposefulness to these actions, a foreshadowing to the relationship Kafuku will form with this tape in this space. As Oto's voice begins to recite Marina Timofeevna's opening lines from the play, our introduction to Uncle Vanya begins.⁵ Placed in the back seat and limited to a rearview mirror shot of Kafuku's face, the viewer is initiated into Hamaguchi's presentation style, one [End Page 184] which favors the indirect...