FILM
Gambling with Romance
Gay Japanese director’s “Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy”
BY STEVE ERICKSON
Since his 2015 “Happy
Hour,” gay Japanese director
Ryusuke Hamaguchi
has rapidly become
a star on the international festival
circuit. “Wheel of Fortune and
Fantasy” is one of two fi lms he
made during the pandemic and
premiered this year. (The other,
“Drive My Car,” also got its local
premiere at the New York Film Festival
and will open at Film Forum
next month.) Extreme length has
been one of the tools in Hamaguchi’s
kit, and it helped him stand
out. “Happy Hour” ran more than
fi ve hours, while “Drive My Car” is
three hours long. But “Wheel of Fortune
and Fantasy” is actually a
collection of three 40-minute short
fi lms with no direct connection to
each other. The opening titles describe
them as “Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s
Short Stories,” and it was
originally intended to incorporate
seven shorts.
The fi lm begins with “Magic:
Or Something Less Assuring,” in
which model Meiko (Kotone Furukawa)
has a lengthy conversation
with a friend in the back seat of a
car. She realizes that her friend’s
new boyfriend, Kazuaki (Ayura
Nakajima), is actually her ex and
heads to his offi ce to hash things
out. “Door Wide Open” acts out a
campus drama, in which a young
man who’s pissed off at Professor
Segawa (Kiyohiko Shibukawa),
an acclaimed novelist, for a failed
grade convinces Nao (Katsuki
Mori), a woman with whom he’s
sleeping casually, to record herself
fl irting with him in hopes that he
will say something inappropriate
and scandalous. “Once Again” begins
with a sci-fi conceit threaded
in the background: in 2019, a new
form of computer virus caused so
much damage that the Internet
has become unusable and people
communicate through the mail
again. In town to attend her high
school reunion, lesbian Nana (Aoba
Kawai) meets her girlfriend of 20
years ago, Moka (Fusako Urabe) …
or so she thinks.
Fusako Urabe and Aoba Kawai in “Wheel of Fortune or Fantasy.”
The stripped-down quality of
“Once Again” is a subtle reminder
of the times during which it was
shot. South Korean director Hong
Sangsoo seems like an infl uence
on the fragmented feel and slightly
curdled relationship drama, even
if his style is quite different from
Hamaguchi’s. But “Wheel of Fortune
and Fantasy” takes place in
isolated, largely empty spaces with
two people interacting at a time.
The exteriors of “Once Again” are
so deserted that it seems quite eerie,
even if the actual events are
benign. It’s the only part of “Wheel
of Fortune and Fantasy” made after
the pandemic started.
Hamaguchi changes tone with
each short as though he is indeed
rolling a wheel, but the fi lm has a
coherent sensibility. It returns to
the roleplay inherent in relationships,
especially when romantic
and sexual desire get tangled up in
situations where they weren’t expected.
Additionally, chance alters
all of his characters’ plans, even
their own visions of their desires.
The plot of “Once Again” makes a
faint stab towards the byzantine
exchange of characters in Abbas
Kiarostami’s “Certifi ed Copy.”
Second short plays against binary
expectations of a tale of female
empowerment or an expression of
anti-#metoo backlash. If the premise
suggests David Mamet’s play
and fi lm “Oleanna,” Hamaugchi
is kinder to all his characters. But
Nao skips out on her assigned role
as a token of exchange between two
men, with her fantasy life proving
to be just as active as the sex detailed
in Professor Segawa’s novel.
In a press statement, Hamaguchi
describes his interest in female
characters, who have been the
subjects of his last three features:
“But I do believe, after working
on ‘Happy Hour,’ I realized something
interesting about having
woman protagonists; I write them
to live according to their desires,
NEOPA/FICTIVE
to chase after what they want, it
always clashes against something
about society.”
To a certain degree, “Wheel of Fortune
and Fantasy” plays out timehonored
romantic tropes, especially
the lingering legacy of old
relationships. But while they rely on
twists of plot and character, these
never feel like gotcha moments.
Hamaguchi uses them to take his
stories in unexpected but believable
directions. While the stakes are
sometimes high, the fi lm remains
low-key and grounded. Closing with
“Once Again” brings “Wheel of Fortune”
to an optimistic conclusion:
while his characters’ identity may
be up for grabs, their emotional closure
is tender and real. “Wheel of
Fortune and Fantasy” is a modest
heartbreaker.
WHEEL OF FORTUNE AND
FANTASY | Directed by Ryusuke
Hamaguchi | In Japanese with
English subtitles | Film Movement |
Opens Oct. 15th at Film Forum
October 21 - November 3 , 2 26 021 | GayCityNews.com
/GayCityNews.com
