The wheel of fortune and fantasy , by the Japanese Ryûsuke Hamaguchi , was one of the important titles of the different film festivals of 2021. The film managed to win the Silver Bear – Grand Jury Prize at the Berlin Film Festival , the second prize of the contest. And, after passing through the San Sebastian Festival and its theatrical release, you can finally watch it in streaming through Movistar+ (from June 7).
Hamaguchi has become a director to be reckoned with. Not only because of this anthological film in which three stories are told with women as protagonists. Also for another of his 2021 films. Drive My Car , an adaptation of a short story by Haruki Murakami , was the big surprise at the Cannes Film Festival and received the FIPRESCI award at the French competition. It also garnered a handful of Oscar nominations : Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Foreign Language Film. He only won the latter.
In The Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy , Hamaguchi divides screen time into three episodes of about 30 minutes each, literary style. With this film, the director invites us to find the extraordinary in the ordinary and to value chance, coincidences and opportunities .
The first story is titled Magic (or Something Less Assuring) and narrates an unexpected and surprising love triangle. The second story, Door Wide Open , follows a mother whose lover asks her to seduce a former college professor who made her life miserable and who has been awarded for her latest book. And, finally, there is Once Again , a story in which two women meet and think they are old high school classmates, only to finally discover that they have mistaken people.
Kotone Furukawa , Kiyohiko Shibukawa and Fusako Urabe are the actresses who star in each of the three stories that make up The Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy . We already told you, during our time at the San Sebastian Festival, that the film is “a pleasant and pleasant film, but one that doesn’t settle and is quickly forgotten” .
