An unexpected love triangle, an attempt at seduction that goes wrong, and a real encounter between two women, born of a misunderstanding. The parallel destinies of individuals having to make choices.
Posted yesterday at 11:30 a.m.
Waiting for Drive My Car, a remarkable film with a good chance of being nominated for the Oscars (theatrical release was scheduled for January 7), moviegoers can fall back on the previous opus by Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, winner of the Grand Prix at the Berlin festival last year. last. Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy is a film made up of three distinct parts, linked by the idea of offering portraits of young women who, in one way or another, are reaching a turning point in their lives.
The very way in which this work is constructed – an assembly of three 40-minute short films – inevitably lends itself to more fleeting moments, but the whole thing nevertheless emanates great psychological finesse, combined with a fine sense of dialogue. Cinephiles have also evoked the memory of Eric Rohmer when this film was launched at the Berlinale last year. This analogy is not wrong.
The first story is that of a love triangle, as a young woman who has just fallen in love with a stranger discusses it with her best friend. The second is built around a seduction trap orchestrated by the former student of a professor who humiliated him years before. The last act – the most successful – depicts two women who experience a kind of love at first sight of friendship when one of them believes they have found a friend they had known 20 years earlier.
Thanks to a very attentive camera, the Japanese filmmaker thus explores the wounds of the soul of his characters and draws a portrait that is as empathetic as it is fascinating.
Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy is available in the original Japanese version with English subtitles on the Cinéma Moderne platform, as well as on Apple TV/iTunes, Google Play, YouTube and Microsoft.
Drama
Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
Ryusuke Hamaguchi
With Kotone Furukawa, Ayumu Nakajima, Katsuki Mori
2:01 a.m.