In the beautiful Japanese movie ‘Drive My Car,’ we’re deep in Chekhov territory: Here’s your official tip sheet

In “Drive My Car,” a lovely movie about the interior dramas we all carry around through life, a multilingual group of actors have come to Hiroshima to prepare a production of Anton Chekhov’s 1898 play “Uncle Vanya.” The director, an emotionally isolated widower and former actor played by Hidetoshi Nishijima, sees his task as one of steering his company away from conspicuous, effortful acting — the familiar performance habits, that is, often blocking a performer’s way to a truer, easier place of emotional expression.

“It was hard work, and we had to dig deeply into our hearts,” as actor Olga Knipper (later Chekhov’s wife) said of the 1898 Moscow premiere of “Uncle Vanya.”

One of the great strengths of “Drive My Car” is the way co-writer and director Ryusuke Hamaguchi revisits the dangerously familiar theme of art informing life, and vice versa. Chekhov admirers may