I loved Drive My Car from Japanese director Ryusuke Hamaguchi so I was curious about his other films. Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy has a title that sparked my interest so it was a good spot to take a second look. The film doesn’t feel much like the title, but it definitely feels like the work of the guy behind Drive my Car.

It consists of three short films about romance, sex, and relationships. All three are good but the first two are exceptional with the final one kind of brings the film down. All three have the same adult conversational style that Drive My Car had. Not a lot of melodrama, nobody pulls a gun, they just have extended conversations without excessive edits or fancy camera tricks.

The first story is an engaging short about a most unexpected love triangle… in which only one person realizes there’s a triangle. It’s the best as a pure, if slightly toxic, relationship drama.

The second is a curiously flat, borderline robotic tale of eroticism and seduction. It’s all conversation with an extended reading of erotica that was a wild choice to go with in such a straight-forward acting style. It’s got some twisty little turns in the end that I enjoyed.

I was much more on the fence for the final short. I loved the ending but the whole affair about running into an old friend twenty years later didn’t connect with me. Some interesting turns though.

Overall, it’s a solid collection of shorts that I wanted to rate higher if not for the final story. It’s all pretty solid though… unless you just don’t like conversational drama.

Score: 87