
An unexpected love triangle, a failed seduction, and a chance encounter with the past: These are the three stories featured in the award-winning Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy. Propelled by coincidence and imagination and guided by love’s gentle current, Ryūsuke Hamaguchi, director of the Academy Award-winning Drive My Car, presents an enchanting triptych that spins mundane encounters into a world of infinite possibilities.
"Episode 1: Magic (or Something Less Assuring)" features a young woman who is startled when she realizes that her best friend’s new flame might just be her ex; in "Episode 2: Door Wide Open," a disgruntled student plots to trick his college professor, using his friend-with-benefits as bait; and in "Episode 3: Once Again," a girl’s college reunion leads to an unanticipated run-in with an old friend and awakens feelings long since forgotten.
Playfully inspired by life’s tiny miracles, and bound together by memory, regret, deception and fate, Hamaguchi leaves no stone unturned in his quest to chart the ever-deepening mysteries of the all-too-human heart.
NYT Critic's Pick! "The geometry of desire is elegantly plotted in Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, a wistful, moving, outwardly unassuming movie. [It] is a perfect entry point into Hamaguchi’s work. Both times I watched this movie, I found something to admire, consider, argue with and weep over." — New York Times
- Year2021
- Runtime121 minutes
- LanguageJapanese
- CountryJapan
- DirectorRyusuke Hamaguchi
- ScreenwriterRyusuke Hamaguchi
- ProducerSatoshi Takata
- CastKotone Furukawa, Ayumu Nakajima, Hyunri
- CinematographerYukiko Iioka
- Production DesignMasato Nunobe, Seo Hyeon-seon
- Sound DesignAkihiko Suzuki
An unexpected love triangle, a failed seduction, and a chance encounter with the past: These are the three stories featured in the award-winning Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy. Propelled by coincidence and imagination and guided by love’s gentle current, Ryūsuke Hamaguchi, director of the Academy Award-winning Drive My Car, presents an enchanting triptych that spins mundane encounters into a world of infinite possibilities.
"Episode 1: Magic (or Something Less Assuring)" features a young woman who is startled when she realizes that her best friend’s new flame might just be her ex; in "Episode 2: Door Wide Open," a disgruntled student plots to trick his college professor, using his friend-with-benefits as bait; and in "Episode 3: Once Again," a girl’s college reunion leads to an unanticipated run-in with an old friend and awakens feelings long since forgotten.
Playfully inspired by life’s tiny miracles, and bound together by memory, regret, deception and fate, Hamaguchi leaves no stone unturned in his quest to chart the ever-deepening mysteries of the all-too-human heart.
NYT Critic's Pick! "The geometry of desire is elegantly plotted in Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, a wistful, moving, outwardly unassuming movie. [It] is a perfect entry point into Hamaguchi’s work. Both times I watched this movie, I found something to admire, consider, argue with and weep over." — New York Times
- Year2021
- Runtime121 minutes
- LanguageJapanese
- CountryJapan
- DirectorRyusuke Hamaguchi
- ScreenwriterRyusuke Hamaguchi
- ProducerSatoshi Takata
- CastKotone Furukawa, Ayumu Nakajima, Hyunri
- CinematographerYukiko Iioka
- Production DesignMasato Nunobe, Seo Hyeon-seon
- Sound DesignAkihiko Suzuki