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Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Drive My Car, a patient drama of performance, grief and communication.
Happy Hour · Drive My Car
- Born
- 16 December 1978
- Birthplace
- Kawasaki, Japan
More people
Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Ryusuke Hamaguchi is a Japanese filmmaker whose dialogue-rich films explore how people understand and misunderstand one another.
Early life
Education
He studied at the University of Tokyo before postgraduate film training.
Film school
He completed his graduate film work at Tokyo University of the Arts.
Career
- 2008
Graduate feature
Passion emerged from his film-school work.
- 2015
International recognition
Happy Hour brought attention to his extended ensemble storytelling.
- 2021 onward
Major awards
Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy and Drive My Car won major international prizes.
Selected work
Happy Hour
Four women’s friendships are unsettled by a divorce.
Drive My Car
A theatre director develops an unexpected connection with his driver.
Evil Does Not Exist
A rural community confronts a proposed tourism development.
Beyond work
Documentary work
With Kō Sakai, he made films recording testimony after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
Collaborative practice
His filmmaking includes extended rehearsal and close work with performers.
Sources & photo credit
Life, career and references ↗Biographical dates and identifiers ↗Academy Awards 2022 ↗Photo: Heiyinmatthewlo. CC BY-SA 4.0 · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.