Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy

Walker Cinema is screening Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy on Friday, October 30, at 7 PM. The film is by Ryūsuke Hamaguchi, and it's part of the Ryūsuke Hamaguchi: Effect and Cause program at the Walker Art Center.

Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (2021, Japan) is a three-part anthology that looks at the psychological weight of chance and choice through stories of human obsession and desire. The three segments weave together a love triangle between friends with a twist ending, a revenge plot at a university that goes wrong, and the impact of role-playing in love. Hamaguchi tells them with equal parts irony and tenderness, and the whole thing runs 121 minutes in Japanese with English subtitles.

If you're not already familiar with Hamaguchi, he's one of the most inventive voices in contemporary cinema. He won the 2022 Academy Award for Best International Feature Film for Drive My Car, and his filmography runs from The Depths (2010) and Happy Hour (2015) to Asako I & II (2018) and Evil Does Not Exist (2023), which took home the Grand Jury Prize at Venice. The screening is copresented by the Department of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, and the Mary Griggs Burke Endowment in Asian Studies.

Tickets are $15, reduced to $12 for Walker members and seniors, and free for students. The screening starts at 7 PM on Friday, October 30, at the Walker Cinema in Minneapolis.