#371 - Ryûsuke Hamaguchi on the Theme of Coincidence in Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy

This week on the Film at Lincoln Center podcast, we’re featuring a special Q&A from the 59th New York Film Festival with filmmaker Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, the director of two NYFF59 selections, Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy and Drive My Car. Hamaguchi sat down with Film Comment's Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish following the premiere of Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy. In this altogether delightful triptych of stories, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi again proves he’s one of contemporary cinema’s most agile dramatists of modern love and obsession. Whether charting the surprise revelation of a blossoming love triangle, a young couple’s revenge plot against an older teacher gone awry, or a case of mistaken romantic identity, Hamaguchi details the sudden reversals, power shifts, and role-playing that define relationships new and old. Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy is both ironic and tender, a lively and intricately woven work of imagination that questions whether fate or our own vanities decide our destinies. Hamaguchi’s second 2021 release, Drive My Car, opens at Film at Lincoln Center on November 24th.