The Drive

A superb crime drama (made for TV, but shot on film), which gives Muroi Shigeru one of her best-ever roles. Kono Takeshi has given up work as an electrician to run a gift-shop business with his partner/mistress Rieko, who’s a couple of years older than him. When the company faces bankruptcy Kono wants to quit, but Rieko strings him along with the promise of a large cash investment, the proceeds of a real-estate deal. Her actual plan to raise the money is to kidnap a young woman and demand a ransom for her release. The trouble is, it never occurs to her to keep the victim alive before trying to extort the cash. And when things start to go wrong, Rieko responds by murdering another girl and attempting another ransom scam… As usual in Nagasaki’s later work, the mystery/suspense angles fade into the background as emotional and psychological issues fill the frame. The Drive (the Japanese title means ‘The Last Drive’) is first and foremost a portrait of a desperate woman. It’s also one of Nagasaki’s most lacerating pictures of an unequal relationship. And it consolidates the through-the-windshield shot (going where and why?) as one of Nagasaki’s signatures. (TR)

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