The final featured film of the Murray State Cinema International program is the 2021 Japanese film Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, directed by Ryūsuke Hamaguchi. Austin Carter speaks to program director Dr. Thérèse St. Paul and professor of Japanese Yoko Hatakeyama ahead of the screenings.
From the Murray State Cinema International website:
"Propelled by coincidence and imagination, Oscar-winning director Ryūsuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car) presents an enchanting triptych about love that spins mundane encounters into a world of infinite possibilities. Playfully inspired by life’s tiny miracles, and bound together by memory, regret, deception and fate, “Hamaguchi proves himself to be one the most astute observers of human conditions in contemporary cinema. It’s one of those films you want to see it again immediately after finishing it.”
"Like [Hamaguchi's] other New York Film Festival selection, Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy covers things like love and betrayal while twisting the narrative in unexpected directions," St. Paul begins. "The film emerges with three unrelated women. They're dealing with specific situations."
"It seems like Hamagushi's dialogues are his forte because they're extremely well-crafted and they're able to express a character's deep emotions that are usually hard to express. So, we're able to empathize or understand the reaction of each character. We don't get one facet of the truth," she continues. "I'd say Hamaguchi unravels the lies and truths we tell ourselves so we may function from day to day. He tends to leave each tale somewhat open-ended, so we keep thinking about the what-ifs."
"The three stories are not related, but they have that same underlying theme," Hatakeyama adds, "which is chance or coincidence shows us unexpected aspects of life. The Japanese title is Coincidence and Imagination. This is an interesting title because when we experience some kind of coincidence, we cannot stop thinking about if that coincidence had not happened, how our life would have been. Then, you imagine a different scenario in your life."
Hatakeyama says that the idea of coincidences is present in the film's production, too. "In the first story, when the protagonist reveals her secret, the audience hears a construction noise. According to Hamaguchi, the noise coincidentally occurred, but he didn't stop the shooting. Interestingly, the noise created a feeling of suspense in the film."
The film "shows how you could include or interpret coincidences to your advantage," St. Paul says. "The story starts mixing real memories with hypothetical outcomes. You're sort of role-playing the what-if to the point that you may even believe it. So, it has a cathartic outcome. I think that's Hamaguchi's strength, and we are drawn into feeling that way—to getting into the character's imagination, real or hypothetical reality, so we better understand where they come from, where they're at."
MSU Cinema International presents Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy this Thursday, November 10th, in the Barkley Room and Saturday, November 12th, in the Curris Center Theater. Both screenings begin at 7:30 pm, are on the third floor of the Curris Center, and are free and open to the public.
For more information on Murray State's Cinema International program, including how to donate, visit its website.
