Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
)
)
)
“If nobody does it, it won't ever happen.”
Overview
Writer-director Ryusuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car, Evil Does Not Exist) delivers a warm triptych of coincidences, misunderstandings and imaginings. A young model suspects her best friend’s new flame might be her ex, a student’s scandalous seduction attempt on a prolific professor takes an unexpected turn, a woman has a run-in reunion with an old friend, discovering she’s not the person she once was. Tales of desire and deception, love and letting go driven by the intimate and thrillingly unpredictable power of conversation.
Why See This Film
The unstoppable Hamaguchi shot two segments of this film in late 2019, and managed to fit the third in between pandemic-forced breaks shooting Drive My Car in 2020. His work ethic? Staggering. His reputation as a crafter par excellence of nuanced character studies? Richly deserved. A much lighter (and shorter) experience than Drive My Car, Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy maintains a fascination with the tender alchemy of performance and conversation. A terrible coincidence, a failed seduction and a chance encounter with the past, each section is guided by Hamaguchi’s signature long dialogues which hypnotise and enthral: the cast’s way with words slowly giving life to a spoken world of honest feelings and deepest secrets. Such craft makes this trio of tales from one of the finest contemporary filmmakers both tantalising and heartwarming.
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)