It was a remarkable achievement, albeit one a long time coming, when Bong Joon-ho made Oscar history when his film Parasite became the first non-English film to win Best Picture in 2020.

It feels like it opened up the way for other films, such as this one, that although missing out on a win in the same category, it was nominated in three other categories, with it picking up a win Best International Feature Film.

Although it’s about time to see non-English films do so well, it has to be said that Japanese director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s quiet and reserved feature is somewhat of an odd choice for the wide appeal that often comes from Oscar nods.

After a number of tragic events in his life, Yûsuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima), finds himself directing a theatre production of Uncle Vanya in Hiroshima.

He gets about in his beloved red Saab 900 turbo, but due to reasons beyond the control of those running the theatre, he has to allow someone else to drive him around whilst he’s working for them. Although unwilling at first, he finally agrees and the young Misaki (Tôko Miura) is assigned to be his chauffeur for the duration of his residency.

It’s a play he’s very familiar with, having starred in it himself some years back, and he makes a bold choice in choosing a popular young actor Koji Takatsuki (Masaki Okada) to play the leading role, often played by an older actor.

He has his reasons, one of which could be that their pasts are connected, with Yûsuke possibly keen to get closer to the actor, in a bid to unravel more details about their shared history.

At three hours long, Drive My Car is some journey. You know you’re in for the long haul when a film shows its opening credits 40 minutes into the film. The pre title section of the film acts as a prologue, setting up what’s to come, giving the audience all it needs to know going forward.

Although the film deals with some dramatic themes, it does so in an outrageously polite fashion, with the only time voices get raised and emotions come to the boil is on stage. There’s not even a sense of simmering emotions, with everyone concerned revealing nothing, delivering some impressive poker faces.

This may tap directly into the Japanese culture as a whole, regarded as it is for being one of the politest societies on the planet, but it makes for some heavy going work here. There’s plenty of emotive dialogue, but the majority of it offered with faces with borderline blank expressions.

It’s an attempt at an essay on loss, and how to deal with it, but it’s such a flat line of sentiment throughout, it makes it difficult to care. As does the 3 hours trapped in their company.

Although it does feature a car, and a fair number of roads, the film is like an automatic, with no dramatic gear changes whatsoever, going at one speed for its entirety.

In a competitive category that featured the likes of Flee and The Worst Person in the World, it’s difficult to see how the Academy deemed this far superior to the rest. And even a nomination in the Best Picture category itself is some stretch.

It has its moments, but it’s understandable that its overall stillness on such a very, very long road may well be enough to make a few nod off on the back seat.