4/5 stars “Chekhov is terrifying,” laments Yusuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima), an actor, director and the leading player in Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s elegant adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s short story Drive My Car . In the Japanese city of Hiroshima on a two-month residency to mount a production of Uncle Vanya , he would make the perfect Vanya, it seems. But he has long since stopped reciting the Russian dramatist’s words on stage; it “drags out the real you”, he explains. And Kafuku is as tightly wound as they come. In the first act – a lengthy 45-minute prologue that takes viewers up to the opening credits – Kafuku is seen with his screenwriter wife, Oto (Reika Kirishima). In their past is the tragic loss of a child, but there is also a deep bond. And yet one day, after a cancelled fight requires him to return home unexpectedly, he finds her having sex with another man. Not saying a word, he leaves without her even realising he was there. A few days later, he returns home to find she has died from a cerebral haemorrhage. Two years on he’s in Hiroshima, and still unable to process his grief. When he arrives, the theatre company assign him a driver – a regulation, after a previous artist accidentally ran into someone. At first, he’s nonplussed; he spends his car journeys in his old-but-cared-for Saab 900 listening to a tape of Chekhov’s play recited by his wife (with the Vanya lines taken out). But he quickly cedes the wheel to his driver, a woman. With a three-hour running time, Drive My Car is not a film that can be accused of speeding. The pace is slow and steady, as Kafuku gets to know various people in his Uncle Vanya cast, including the hot-headed Toji Takatsuki (Masaki Okada). He’ll also find unexpected communion with a hearing-impaired actress who performs her lines in sign language. Yet perhaps his biggest – and most unexpected – friendship is with his driver, Misaki (Toko Miura), a careworn 23-year-old whose life has also been beset by tragedy. Drive My Car comes just a few months after Hamaguchi’s previous film, the award-winning Wheels of Fortune and Fantasy , and he is in full control here, aided by a terrific lead turn from Nishijima, who may be best known outside his native Japan for his voice work on Hayao Miyazaki ’s The Wind Rises . Holding his emotions in check quite superbly, he is a perfect vehicle for the film’s subtle exploration of the debilitating forces that grief can unleash. Want more articles like this? Follow SCMP Film on Facebook