It took a special combination of history, artistry, soft power, and luck for Drive My Car to arrive in this position as the first Japanese film nominated for best picture and the most successful Japanese movie at the Oscars since the portfolio of legendary director Akira Kurosawa. Meanwhile, film production committees in Japan hold to a narrow vision of the domestic market without looking to appeal to the outside world. At times, movies like Ran (1985), Spirited Away (2001), and Your Name (2016) have soared to capture the world’s attention, but more often, even critical darlings have rambled in relative obscurity. Japan’s film industry has struggled through ups and downs since the Golden Age of Japanese cinema in the 1950s and 1960s. And though the betting odds are against it, a win for the Japanese film could be just as revolutionary. This year, Drive My Car-an artful, meditative Japanese drama-is up for the award. Two years ago, South Korea’s Parasite shocked the world and changed cinema forever when it became the first foreign-language film to win best picture at the Oscars.
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