Under the Influence: Adaptation, Adultery, and Acceptance in Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya and Ryusuke Hamaguchi's Drive My Car.

This article analyzes Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s 2021 film *Drive My Car* as a complex adaptation that integrates four source texts, including Haruki Murakami’s short stories and Anton Chekhov’s 1897 play *Uncle Vanya*. The film exemplifies Linda Hutcheon’s threefold definition of adaptation as transposition, creative appropriation, and intertextual engagement, with *Uncle Vanya* serving as a central structural and thematic influence. Through the film’s four-act structure, multilingual theatrical rehearsals, and evolving relationships among characters coping with grief and loss, Hamaguchi uses Chekhov’s play as a therapeutic and communal device that facilitates emotional healing and human connection. The multinational cast and incorporation of diverse languages underscore themes of collaboration and cross-cultural understanding, suggesting a pan-Asian model of reconciliation. Ultimately, the film portrays adaptation not only as textual transformation but as a process of shared creation that enables characters—and by extension, audiences—to confront pain and move forward.