Ryusuke Hamaguchi

Ryusuke Hamaguchi was born in Kanagawa in 1978. He studied at the University of Tokyo, and his first film steps were in advertising. He continued training at the Tokyo University of the Arts, where he concluded his training by delivering the graduation film Passion, which would be selected to compete at Tokyo Filmex. Side by side with Ko Sakai, he conceived the documentary The Sound of the Waves in 2011 , about the earthquake and tsunami catastrophe that had affected Japan shortly before. It would be the first of the films in a trilogy, which was also composed by Voices from the Waves and Storytellers , from 2012 and 2013. They were praised for their sensitivity and were part of the selection at various Japanese festivals.

2015 was not just the time for happy hour, Happy Hour , it was an important year when it came to advancing in the field of fiction with an extensive three-part film about the relationships between several thirty-something friends. She made it with an interpretive workshop, where there was room for improvisation, and the result drew attention at the Locarno Festival, where the actresses received awards and the script was mentioned. Her images were shot through with lyricism, and at the same time she manages to capture the folds and folds of the human condition with unusual sensitivity. It didn’t matter to Hamaguchi that the total length of the tape exceeded five hours, he takes the time he needs to tell her story.

Already in 2018 Asako I & II arrived , a unique romantic love story of a couple, with Asako in love with a man, who later runs into another, who thinks it is him, but no, it is another. And she collaborated with Kiyoshi Kurosawa , being one of the authors of the script for The Spy’s Wife .

The year of definitive recognition has undoubtedly been 2021, in which it has triumphed at festivals with The Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy , Grand Jury Prize in Berlin, and Drive My Car , best screenplay at Cannes. Although the first is an absolute creation of Hamaguchi, based on his observation capacity, while the other is based on a story of the same name by Haruki Murakami included in her book “Men without women”, both share fundamental themes of narcissism, self-referentiality, frustration, the fragility of the human condition, the search for love and happiness, a certain unease and sadness in the face of the short range of achievements to which that can be aspired in this life. Alluding to what he read from Murakami, he assures that he thought: “I know these voices. I’ve heard them in real life.” And it is that conversations are very important to him, what is expressed with the word.

Hamaguchi is very literary and very visual, has an amazing sense of timing, and knows how to bring out the best in the actors who work with him. He says he connects a lot with the cinema of Spanish Víctor Erice . Although very oriental, it is also very universal, and in the pain shared by two characters as different as the actor and the driver in Drive My Car , it is perfectly explained that in the end human beings are very similar in our condition of existential castaways, that they have to compose themselves to continue living.