Norwegian Wood

As a die-hard murakami fan, I was severely disappointed…Of course the scenery and the cinematography was wonderful. Full of natural lights and beautiful vintage sets full with objects and perfect clothing. However it falls short in it’s ability to tell the story despite the looks. So what I get from this movie, is that the boy gets to sleep with these women who basically throw themselves at him after his best friend dies. That’s the original story line, yes, but at least murakami makes it more poetic. Also, the pace of the movie is very slow, but not the good kind of slow. It’s filled with all these silences and emptiness, and the characters take forever to complete a short conversation. From the middle I basically watched it twice the speed…and it still felt slow. I feel that perhaps instead of putting so much focus on emptiness and sadness — and at times you can tell that the silences are trying too hard to be poetic and meaningful — perhaps a bit of character development or some sort of storyline would have been helpful. It is a lot to cover an entire book, but maybe this film is trying to glance over everything which makes it a bit shallow. Regarding characters, the boy was fine, his acting isn’t anything special but the character itself is sort of bland. I feel that Naoko, perhaps was a miscast? Don’t get me wrong, she’s a wonderful actress. Ironically, I saw this after seeing kumiko, and I just couldn’t erase this kumiko out of my head. Yes, Naoko is supposed to be crazy but maybe it went a little overboard…plus Naoko is supposed to be twenty years old and Rinko Kikuchi just has this very sad, mature look. Midori was fine, but she seemed a little dull. Overall, the movie needs more substance besides sex.

Why is that some movie adaptations of books can be so dissapointing? Although some of the shots from the movie was stunning, I was fairly dissapointed by this movie overall. I have read the book and maybe my expectations of this movie was too high. The movie was mostly faithful to the book, but I felt some parts of the movie eithe wasn't faithful to the book or was confused as to why some important parts of the book was left out. Some examples: The book was told in first person by an older Watanabe after hearing "Norwegian Wood" being played while in Germany, hence the title of the book. It never mentions that in this film. While I thought the character of Naoko was played fairly well, I would have thought Midori would be more full of life. The film also never really goes through the backround of Reiko. Some of the music in this film is also almost unlistenable (if that is even a word). If you never read the book, maybe you enjoyed the movie more than I. I also recommend you read the book. Its probably one of the best book I've ever read. If you read the book and watched this movie, I don't think you'll enjoy it.

This movie is a painterly masterpiece. The sets, costumes, lighting, scenery and music chosen are at perfect pitch for this beautifully made movie. Oh, the plot and story? Well, that's secondary. It follows the book like a jazz musician's interpretation of a standard (the shell or melody is basically there…mostly), but the beauty is in the texture and feel of this film's visual look and if you're in the right mood to watch this, it is poetic.

Every bit as good as the book even though the film didn't follow it exactly.

I was blown away.

Shot in a painterly style and acted beautifully. A deeply satisfying interpretation of a novel that I loved. Energetically, an antidote to the blunt and shallow action blockbuster.