Glücksrad

This was my second Hamaguchi film of the year (the other being "Drive My Car"), and I'm starting to think I just don't vibe with his style.

To be fair to this movie, I'm not a fan of anthology films, so it was my choice to watch one. And I also watched it assuming that it would be similar in style to "Drive My Car" (it is) and knowing that I wasn't in the mood for a movie like that (it was due back to the library the next day so I felt forced to watch it).

I just get very restless watching Hamaguchi films. They're static and feel very long. Perhaps my favorite movie of 2021 was "Mass," a film that's mostly four characters talking in a single setting for two hours, so it's not like I'm resistant to the kinds of movies Hamaguchi makes. They just don't speak to me for some vague reason, even as I can see that they're objectively very good movies.

Grade: B+

(Apologies in advance for spending most of this review comparing the film to Drive My Car... I couldn't help it 😔)

The less well-known (but still quite good) 2021 film by Ryusuke Hamaguchi. I understand why Drive My Car has made more of an impact, and overall I enjoyed it more. But this is a different sort of movie and it's interesting to compare and contrast the two.

Apparently Drive My Car blended several short stories, but did it in a way where (to me at least) it felt like one coherent three-hour film. Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy tells three short stories as three short films, each approximately 40 minutes long. Because of this, I'd say it lacked the almost hypnotic effect that Drive My Car had, where it sucks you in and becomes absorbing the longer it goes on.

One other interesting difference: it doesn't make the movie better or worse, but I found it interesting how in Drive My Car, the lead characters keep their emotions held in, whereas in Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, characters are surprisingly open. Even when they hide the truth, it doesn't take long for them to reveal it (maybe besides the third story, which emotionally feels the most similar to Drive My Car).

This film isn't as beautiful as Drive My Car. Some of it looks a little rough and flat to be honest, but maybe the minimalist style was intentional, and to be fair, there are a few visually arresting shots throughout that really stand out.

The stories themselves are interesting, and the dialogue mostly engaging. Acting is good across the board too, and overall, while it's not always consistently absorbing, I enjoyed it for the most part, and much of it is undeniably well-made.

2021 was a good year for Hamaguchi, and I'm interested to see what he directs next.

Among the best dialogues I've ever seen. Touching, emotional and very smart. It's the kind of film that you need to be 100% on it but it really worths. All these characters seem real and it's all about life choices.

Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy is a Japanese anthology film told as three dialogue-driven vignettes, about an unexpected dating mix-up, a malicious seduction, and a misunderstanding between strangers. The three shorts are not love stories, but rather stories about love in the face of coincidence.

Written and directed by Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, the man behind the currently Oscar-nominated Drive My Car, the film evokes drama out of everyday mundanity.

If you had Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy on mute, you wouldn't see anything visually dramatic happening. There's no violence, chases, or explosions. Hamaguchi delivers three dramatically engaging conversations on film, much like a theatrical play. What the dialogue churns out of its characters is remarkable, ranging from the dark, the perverse, and the deceitful. It covers every color of the emotional spectrum, which I suspect was Hamaguchi's goal.

The film brilliantly steers clear of the trappings of anthology films. The three segments are in a perfect balance with each other and all serve the film's overall theme. There was no best segment out of the three, which is quite impressive.

After seeing Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, I thought about the everyday quality of life and how often that is forgotten as being dramatic. What the film explores is in a similar artistic area that the HBO show Mare of Easttown was exploring earlier this year.

Every dramatic moment in life tends to be a person in front of you about to reveal something for better or worse. And life just all seems like luck of the draw. This theme washed over me and I recollected similar moments in my own life afterward.

Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy captures its idea with impressive precision and also with a whimsical smile on its face. They don't really make films like this anymore and I'm glad someone brought it back. I look forward to seeing Drive My Car now.

Clearly, this movie polarises viewers. For me, way better than same director's Drive My Car. As good as Burning, American Honey, Stuff and Dough, or Our Time, a few of my benchmarks for 21st century cinema.

The original Japanese title, which translates as Coincidence and Imagination, is much more apt than the clunky English title.

To illustrate his theme, the director writes the most utterly brilliant dialogue, which is sort of like 3D scrabble on steroids.

For all of that, it still needs the wonderful third reel, where the coincidences coalesce into genuine insight and wisdom, of the sort that can reduce you to sudden tears in a darkened cinema.

Hamaguchi-san, you are an ornament, go to the top of the class. I reckon the old masterful deceiver, Bunuel, will be smiling down upon you.