Alternate Best Actor 2021: Hidetoshi Nishijima in Drive My Car

Hidetoshi Nishijima did not receive an Oscar nomination, despite winning NSFCA, for portraying Yūsuke Kafuku in Drive My Car.

 

Drive My Car is potent introspective film about a theater director dealing with the death of his wife while putting on a multilingual version of Uncle Vanya. 

Out of all the performances I've reviewed this year there probably isn't a quieter one than Nishijima's performance in this film. Not only is Nishijima playing a rather quiet man emotionally he also is within a culture that is defined often by not explicitly displaying one's emotions, particularly in public where much of this film takes place in at least some way. Nishijima has a great challenge in that he needs to play everything and I mean almost everything, close to the chest for the majority of the film. That isn't to say his Kafuku isn't going through a lot, in fact, he might be going through too much, however, the navigation of these treacherous waters is through a boat with very few leaks. Within the tight shell though is so much, and a performance of extreme subtlety is perhaps one of the most challenging to pull off yet can often reap the greatest rewards. Take even within the opening of the film where we meet Kafuku first as a theater actor with his wife Oto (Reika Kirishima) who is a television writer. Their relationship is really defined by a few particularly nuanced ideas, and one element where nuanced doesn't seem quite the right word for it. In their interactions in public, such as after Kafuku's performance of Waiting for Godot, there is a sweet smile they share and a generalized warmth. Together though there is a quiet distance that is rather fascinating in their performances. A distance that we learn is defined by their mutual grief of their deceased daughter who died long ago, but the distance isn't a traditional separation. They still seemingly are that loving couple, yet there is something that just isn't quite whole about them even as they do seem to genuinely love each other. This is beautifully articulated in both performances which convey the sense of the shared grief, however, a shared grief that is in a way changed and shifted over years of dealing with it along with dealing with each other. 

The overt connections the two share are in two ways that both seem in a way specifically strange yet are seemingly intensely intimate. The first is that Oto records the other sides of conversations for Kafuku in order for him to practice his stage roles, he does this while driving. Although seemingly a minor thing Nishijima's performance in the scenes of listening to the tapes speaks far more than just a simple memory trick. There's this sense of a natural comfort he has even when speaking the lines of someone in a way appreciating his wife, and his wife appreciating him as he goes about this routine. The other routine of theirs is a little stranger where when the two are having sex Oto will come up with stories that she can't remember, and Kafuku will be able to remind her about them the following morning. The performance of these scenes is actually quite essential, as any sex scene can easily seem very silly if overly exploitative, and actually making it feel something truly intimate between two old lovers is rather remarkable. That is the nature of the scenes here where Nishijima's performance with Kirishima crafts this very unique state between the two. They're both in a state of sexual satisfaction however it isn't typical lust or even aggressive pleasure. What we see instead is this sense of connection within the story as she's in the throws of pleasure within the tale, and Nishijima portrays this manner of guiding her through the story while in a way appreciating both her body and mind while doing so. We see this clear articulation of what one would believe is a one-of-a-kind connection between the two as they explore each other in more ways than one, and seemingly there is this core of what bridges them together in these moments. 

The first tragedy for Kafuku comes when he thinks he's leaving town but plans change leading him to return home to find that Oto is having sex with a young television actor Kōji Takatsuki (Masaki Okada). And here is where you truly see a man who plays things close to the chest as there is no reaction in the moment rather Kafuku leads and finds a hotel almost to cover his tracks to help to ensure that his wife does not suspect that he suspects anything has happened. The greatness of Nishjima's performance is conveying what is going on even as he remains so reserved. Examining his eyes after this scene, and the subsequent scene of just stewing on it in a hotel room, don't create waves of emotion, yet you still wholly sense in there, just obscured by the walls of the reserved man. His following conversation with her is in the delivery where there is now just the slight, ever so slight, put on of normalcy in Kafuku as he's clearly still thinking much about the betrayal. Unfortunately, the second tragedy strikes before any sort of understanding can be reached by Kafuku as he finds his wife collapsed, as she died suddenly. Nishijima's initial reaction is moving in showing the immediate surprise and anxiety of finding his wife unconscious. In the subsequent scenes of the mourning within a group, even with the young man with whom she was having an affair, Nishijima's performance again says so much while literally saying almost nothing. The nuance of his work again is what is so special, as the grief isn't just grief. It isn't just sadness you sense, there is a complication about it. There is sorrow but sorrow transformed by the circumstance. There isn't any sense of closure and there is an innate conflict that stays internalized in Nishijima's troubled brow. 

We break from that situation as the film jumps ahead two years to find that Kafuku is now a theater director and has a job at a multilingual theater company that is putting on Uncle Vanya, the last play Kafuku put on before retiring from being an actor. Nishijima's performance is as this solitary man so much as he speaks with this directness but also even a kind of going through the motions detachment as he takes on the job. Nishijima doesn't portray Kafuku as someone who doesn't care, but he does portray him as someone who is very much isolated within himself. Isolated in terms of the pain being something that he has shared with no one. He has experienced it within himself and stays experiencing it within himself. Kafuku even insisting upon staying his own driver when the company insists, due to insurance reasons, that he must have a driver for the duration of his work. We then follow him in the theater company where Nishijima exudes a quiet authority though not so simple as that when the young television actor, now more so a celebrity Takatsuki appears to audition for Kafuku's production of Uncle Vanya. I think it is pretty fascinating that Nishijima is doing an intense glare but an intense glare that is befitting Kafuku, which he's really looking right into this young man who is part of such a deep pain but keeps it mostly inside. The only initial break coming when during Takatsuki's extremely sexually aggressive audition for Dr. Astrov, the most desired man in Vanya, Kafuku interrupts. Nishijima's tension is so subtle in the moment but still realized, and in some ways a true outburst from a man as reserved as he. 

Although his relationship among the actors in his play will be most important with Takatsuki, I think it is important to also examine the seemingly minor scenes between Kafuku and Lee Yoo-na (Park Yu-rim) the mute actress who plays the role of the very meek Sonya in Vanya. A character who has a natural power to her performance both in and out of character. The dinner scene between her and one of the directors though I think is important because even while there is some stress discussed there's a more potent warmth about. Important to note because of Nishijima's performance in this scene where we see a greater appreciation the man has for her clear purity of intention in her wise purpose for performance, and as much as her power of her performance. This while also challenging Nishijima on treating her potentially differently in some way because she doesn't use a voice to speak with. As much as these moments it is difficult not to look at Park's performance, Nishijima does a lot in these moments in showing the way Kafuku is genuinely impressed and taken aback by her. In both senses we see more from him both in terms of expressing joy in the unexpected nature of the actress, but also while showing these moments of reflection regarding her questions. An important contrast when the conversation moves from her, Nishijima shows Kafuku withdrawing to an extent again, not that he's cold, but there's this specific unwillingness to express, almost by requirement, that is very important in these moments to help reveal the truth of the man. 

That relationship which is in stark contrast to his relationship with his driver initially Misaki Watari (Tōko Miura), a person who I'd say is almost cold and certainly as withdrawn as Kafuku as a person, potentially exacerbated by the fact that she's the technical intrusion on the solitude and the remaining intimacy of his wife which is listening to the recordings of his wife's voice while driving to rehearse his plays. Their relationship initially then is extremely business like as both very much state their purpose and their interactions initially while aren't truly cold, they are very much detached. The nature of the long drive though kind of dictates an unlikely avenue that these two can't remain not too talkative with one another even with the tapes acting as a distraction initially. The two do begin to talk and so much of the power of the relationship is the gradual way this slowly peels away between them. The intriguing element here is that this is very atypically done by both performers. The idea of the employer/employee making a connection, while driving in particular, has been done many times before. This feels very different but also so much more honest than so many by making it this subtle internalized transition in both of them. They share their stories even initially with more informative delivery finding more passion in themselves ever so gradually as they share with one another. Neither make this immediate jump and it is so well articulated in the performances of both Miura and Nishijima. 

The pestering relationship, and in some ways a rather ambiguous one is with Takatsuki, as Kafuku casts the young man not with the desirable Astrov but instead as Vanya, the least desired man in the play. Now how one reads this exactly can be different though watching the film three times I think Nishijima's performance suggests two ideas with this choice. One is it is this kind of revenge in a way to plant him in this impotent character which is supported by the way Nishijima portrays the criticism of Takatsuki when they are rehearsing. His criticism is particularly blunt, not overly venomous, but for Kafuku there's this certain directness about it. He is more focused in his delivery and more cutting while still maintaining this professional manner. The other is that Kafuku is trying to get a read on the young man who was the weapon of betrayal by his wife. Their scenes together are filled with a whole lot secrets and an understated tension. The way Nishijima plays these scenes is brilliant because his eyes are so often examining this man, searching for something in a way. At the same time there is this kind of exasperation in his manner at times as he questions the young man's sexual aggression and generally violent demeanor. Nishijima's marvelous though in that his candor is dismissive yet does still have this sort of mentor's guidance about him in terms of style, as though it is against Kafuku's better nature to truly treat the young man badly, yet can't quite bring himself to forgive him. Instead what Nishijima shows is the older man challenging the younger man on his vices and even the inadequacies as the young man fails to give himself to Vanya in many ways for his performance to work. 

The key conversation of this relationship comes in Kafuku's car, as Takatsuki is given a ride home. Kafuku and the young man basically finally revealing their truths with only some very thin veils between them. Nishijima is amazing in this scene in making this substantial leap into revealing the pains of the character, though still as what one would describe as a deeply reserved man. Nishijima though is far more direct, even nearly impassioned in the moment of trying to suggest to the young man the one thing he thinks he has over him, in that he believes the true intimacy he shared with his wife was through sharing the stories. His description of this going almost into this boast in his performance as he states this with a certain confidence in his voice, though his physical presence has a certain awkwardness of a man doing something that is against his nature. Just look at the way Nishijima breathes in this scene and you'll see a masterclass of subtlety in the way he holds a breath or releases, speaks much to what Kafuku is going through emotionally as he speaks this. Holding a breath as though he's uncertain of the reveal, but then finding breath when putting more of his story out in this striking confidence. I love the moment where Kafuku accuses Takatsuki as directly as possible, while still being indirect, however the directness is in Nishijima's direct intense stare that is unlike anything we saw in the man the rest of the film. His anger is here, even as he doesn't even raise his voice, it is all in the eyes. Watch Nishijima then when Takatsuki really reveals the greatest betrayal when not only does the young man know the story, he actually knows more of the story than Kafuku. Again Nishijima portrayal of sheer devastation is uniquely internalized yet so palatable. The way his eyes downturn, his confidence and aggression of before gone, and this sadness in the man is in his expression. He wouldn't dare cry in front of this man, yet the pain of this is sketched within Nishijima's expression that is of a man who wants to remain stoic, but can't quite. 

After that climactic conversation between the two actors Takatsuki is arrested for attacking a man who had been taking pictures of him, leaving Kafuku to take on the role of Vanya, but before that we see the last essential step of Kafuku's and Watari's relationship. Again what is so impressive is how earned it feels when the two withdrawn people finally connect, and when the two decide to attempt to find some catharsis in their mutual losses, as Watari reveals she is as well dealing with the thoughts of her mother's death. The two though reveal more together on the way to her home where her mother died. Both performances are outstanding and so powerful first in the driving conversation. Both are so remarkable in revealing their break in their shields which is their reservedness Nishijima is so impactful in finally revealing real tears, though still held back as much as he can, and finds such potent emotion in just that force of the moment as Kafuku begins to reveal himself. The story itself being that Kafuku confesses on the day of his wife's death he had purposefully driven longer and gotten home late to avoid a potential confrontational conversation that would change his relationship with his wife. Nishijima gives you such a tangible sense of the state that day in the fear he conveys in his hesitated breath, and the sorrow though in accentuating the lump in his throat as he notes his sense of guilt in failing to be there in her death. In Watari's story she too reveals guilt, though of a different kind, as she was with her mother when their house collapsed, and she had a chance to save her mother but chose not to. Nishijima's reaction to this is as important as his revelation of guilt in conveying this true empathy and understanding the two share in this intensely complicated grief. 

The true climax of their relationship isn't found though until the two finally make their trek to Watari's old house that still sits in rubble within a snowy landscape. And to mention the great Lee Byung-hun for a moment, the actor I perhaps first think of first when it comes to the volcanic technique of performance, where so much of the work is all about just beneath the surface until it is all unleashed. Unleashed in a way that leaves such a substantial and awe inspiring impact that is particularly unique thanks to the atypical execution of it. Well that is what you have here with Nishijima's performance as any of the man's inhibitions are gone as he is fully there for Watari's grief, but also finally seemingly fully experiencing his own. Both suffering from a similar state of guilt, sadness but also complications with people who they neither purely loved or hated. In the beginning of the scene Nishijima is already devastating in just realizing such a potent sympathy and empathetic pain as he looks upon Watari speaking her own pains. Watari though turns this on Kafuku and asks him consider that his wife was complicated and loved him even within her painful betrayals. Nishijima's eyes are filled with such initial despair. He is harrowing in revealing everything he's kept internalized for so long, still trying to keep it back, but now the effort is truly too much, releasing it in this moment. When he finally breaks, Nishijima is truly heartbreaking in revealing every bit of anger but also sadness at his own failures in her relationship. When finally he says bluntly that he does truly miss her, Nishijima's performance articulates this so powerfully because it is with this force of emotion of the reserved man finally allowing himself to feel it all, and it is this combination of pain and catharsis. Catharsis that evokes Vanya by embracing Watari and speaking the words about living up to their loss by continuing on despite their pain, and in the end Nishijima ends up being as inspiring as he was heart wrenching. 

 

As much as I feel I've covered that poignant and oh so powerful portrait of a man's introspective journey through grief that is Nishijima's extraordinary performance, I would be remiss if I forgot to mention his performances within the performance. I left these alone actually because as much as he has that incredible volcanic arc in the personal story of Kafuku there is another more condensed one that we see in the performances of the man. The first performance in Waiting for Godot, where we just see a man experiencing his joys as a performer with no great fanfare, pomp or circumstance. A working actor without any extra cares to the performance. This is in stark contrast to his first depicted performance as Vanya in Uncle Vanya, the lonely rejected man contemplating his apparently misspent life, and in that Nishijima seems to portray something Jack Lemmon referred to when speaking about his performance in Save the Tiger. Lemmon referred to becoming too intertwined with his character to the point he was in pain just as his character of Harry Stoner was in that film, something Lemmon counseled against falling into. We see this idea as Nishijima depicts Kafuku becoming far too empathetic with Vanya in his performance to the point the man is writhing in pain. He's showing it on stage in his performance but his eyes are searing with the very real pain of the man becoming so connected with his character that he suffers as Vanya does even when he walks off the stage. This is in contrast to his final performance which is after he's found his sense of closure and in turn his performance now is of a powerful and capable actor, reveals Vanya's painful emotions, but when he walks off stage it is with a healthy calm, no longer burdened so terribly in his connection. Nishijima though delivers another great performance within this great performance, as he is a great Vanya in his scene of showing this man filled with regret, though performed differently from Kafuku's own, to the point I kind of wish we had gotten to see the full version of this Uncle Vanya at the center of this film. Nevertheless both performances make up the greatness of this outstanding performance by Hidetoshi Nishijima. A performance that carries us through a challenging,  and often insular journey, but a journey that is no less poignant or powerful in this method. A journey of a man trying to come to terms with the unknowable, that is realized by making a man seemingly unknowable, knowable.