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ok, this makes me really interested in seeing Drive My Car.....whenever it is I can

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Really nice read. I've been interested in Hamaguchi since everyone went nuts for Happy Hour. Looks like in the US that and Asako I & II remain the only ones accessible. Normally I like to start as early in the filmography as I can with a filmmaker but the 5.5 hour runtime is too much for a director I haven't seen before, and it appears I missed Wheel during its run at the Siskel Center.

I'll have to decide whether to watch Asako at home soon, or go into Drive My Car when it opens next week here in Chicago blind to Hamaguchi—other than reading this essay of course.

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So I’ve never seen a Hamaguchi film but am extremely interested in his work. I doubt I’ll get to see either of these until they hit streaming, but looking at his back catalogue, I have a question:

Asako I & II seems like a good starting point because it’s acclaimed and reasonably easy to find. Not to mention his other most acclaimed film, Happy Hour, is over 5 hours long - a tough sell even if great.

However I see that he also has a ton of earlier films that almost seem to not exist. They also all have fairly bad IMDB scores (not that I respect IMDB, but anything under a 6 when it’s this tough to see seems odd).

Does anyone have any advice on which of Hamaguchi’s film’s I should seek out besides Drive My Car and Wheel of Fortune?

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