The Saab 900 Turbo from “Drive my car” starred in Cannes and the Golden Globes

A 1987 Saab 900 Turbo, a place of confessions and changes. The red car stars in the film Drive my car directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, fresh winner of the Golden Globe for best foreign film and, in 2021, of the award for best screenplay in Cannes, written by Hamaguchi himself with Tamakasa Oe. The film is based on the short story of the same name by Haruki Murakami contained in the collection Men without women. In the film set in Japan, and therefore with the direction of travel as in the United Kingdom, the car has left-hand drive, manual transmission, radio with cassettes, immaculate bodywork and black leather seats. A lovingly kept vehicle that in its period being combines aesthetic reasons with fundamental elements for the story. In Murakami’s story the car is a yellow Saab 900 convertible, in this case it is a red sedan, as mentioned. The film released in theaters last fall returned to theaters in January after winning the Golden Globe.

Aero version

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It is not clear, and it is not important for the plot, whether it is the 145 HP 8-valve Turbo, or the 155 HP 8-valve Turbo with intercooler. Surely the film machine is the Aero version with rather showy aerodynamic appendages and the rims with a particular design that brings them closer to lenticular wheels in appearance. Already a Saab 900 Convertible had been the protagonist of another film, that is Something is changed James L. Brooks’ 1997 romantic comedy starring Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt.

So many turns

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Among the peculiarities of Hamaguchi’s film are the dilated rhythm, which is the opposite of adrenaline-pumping titles with cars at Fast & Furious, the considerable duration, 179 minutes, and the very dense dialogues. Some of which, in fact, take place by car and determine turns in the course of the story. Yusuke Tafuku, played by Hidetoshi Nishijima, is a theater director and actor struggling with mourning following the death of his wife Oto, Reika Kirishima, a television screenwriter. He decides to go direct a multilingual version in Hiroshima of Uncle Vanya. However, the production, for insurance reasons, requires his car to be driven by a driver, Misaki Watari, played by Toko Miura. The plot proceeds at times in parallel with that of Chekhov’s play; many of the truths that emerge and the resulting changes have as their stage the interior of the passenger compartment of the Swedish car traveling on Japanese roads and motorways. In particular, the theme of lost opportunities but also the one that Sonia proposes to her uncle in the Russian author’s dramaturgy, that is, that final “one must live”, runs side by side. And so, with courtesy and strong stage presence, the red Saab is king in the scarce three hours of what is also a road movie. Final note: to be seen absolutely in original, the languages ​​spoken are six.