VOD film review: Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
Review Overview
First story
8Second story
9Third story
10Cathy Brennan | On 12, Feb 2022
Director: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
Cast: Kotone Furukawa, Katsuki Mori, Fusako Urabe
Certificate: 15
Film history will no doubt mark 2021 as the year of Ryusuke Hamaguchi. The director came out with not one, but two films that rank among the very best. Whereas Drive My Car centres on the sorrow of a solitary male character, Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy dwells on the lives of women in three separate stories.
In the first, young model Meiko learns that her best friend has unknowingly started a romance with an ex-boyfriend Mieko left under painful circumstances but whom she still harbours feelings for. The second story follows the married Nao as she is recruited into a honeytrap plot targeting a newly feted writing professor. Finally, there is a tale of crossed paths and mistaken identities when a computer virus prompts humanity to abandon online communication, with two women mistaking each other for a beloved classmate from their past.
Food metaphors when discussing art are cliched, but to call Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy a triptych would be too cold, too mechanical. The film is a three-course meal, where the delicately balanced flavours of each dish complement the others to induce supreme satisfaction. As with a delicious meal, there is joy that comes from tasting something so good, yet there is also an underlying sadness because, in a few minutes, the plate will be empty.
However, that sense of sorrow only amplifies the tactile pleasure. Each segment in Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy pivots on a singular encounter that is as fleeting as a flavour on the tongue. Meiko confronts her ex-boyfriend at night, Nao’s attempted seduction of the professor teeters on a potentially genuine erotic precipice. Meanwhile, the two women in the final chapter come to learn more intimately about their own loneliness and disappointment in an encounter whose magic is only momentary.
Hamaguchi’s scripting unites these disparate stories through moments of sublime emotional vulnerability that only true human connection can provide. In a way, it speaks to feelings we may have held, but lacked either the words or courage to express them, bringing to mind regrets and desires that seem so long ago yet still tug at us now and then. The film is often poignant, but it is alchemically balanced with moments of mystery and humour. The professor sitting awkwardly as Nao reads out a particular steamy part of his new novel comes to mind. Is it fear or arousal that colours his face? Is Mieko’s sparring with her ex a sign of true feeling, or is it just another performance to her? Such ambiguities make the messy nature of interpersonal relationships feel genuine.
This is emotionally astute filmmaking of the highest order. Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy is an aching reminder of our own humanity and the people we share that humanity with.