Photo/Illutration Director Ryusuke Hamaguchi, left, and the cast of “Drive My Car” at a news conference in Tokyo on April 5. To Hamaguchi’s left are Toko Miura, Hidetoshi Nishijima, Masaki Okada and Reika Kirishima. (Kazushige Kobayashi)

Returning to Japan to a hero’s welcome, director Ryusuke Hamaguchi, whose “Drive My Car” won the best international feature film at the Academy Awards last month, expressed hopes of making a film in Hollywood someday.

“I want to shoot for it if there is a subject I can really grapple with and a supportive environment,” he said at a news conference in Tokyo on April 5.

Asked about his impression of the U.S. film industry, Hamaguchi described it as “a truly extraordinary world with budgets on an incomparable scale.”

But Japanese and U.S. filmmakers are not so different in terms of what inspires them to make films in the first place, he added.

“They make films based on their own personal experiences,” he said. “They work to translate into films the joy they get from movies and the pain in their souls from what they have experienced in their own lives.

“I was convinced that starting out with a personal thought is the only way to make movies and reach out to audiences,” he said.

Hidetoshi Nishijima, who starred in the movie, said he felt the same way about actors.

“We should strive for a performance that we, ourselves, can believe,” he said. “Many Japanese actors have such potential.”

“Drive My Car,” which is primarily based on Haruki Murakami’s short story of the same name, tells the story of the great loss, grief and rebirth of a soul and the power of art. It stars Nishijima as the protagonist, Yusuke Kafuku.

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