Norwegian Wood – an adaption of Haruki Murakami’s bestseller written in 1987 and only now realised on film – completely embodies The Beatles’ lyrics by the song of the same title, ‘I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me’…
Norwegian Wood, directed by Tran Anh Hung, is an emotive and starkly passionate adaption of Haruki Murakami’s bestselling novel written in 1987 and only now realised on film.
Set in the late 60’s in Japan, it moves slowly at first – like a moving postcard from a Japanese college – where walking the shady paths and listening to LPs and swimming filled their days before drifting away, almost like in a dream-like sense of remembrance.
It retraces the steps in life from perfection and happy, young love to the loss of a life and how those left behind were left to never return to their former state of being.
As one of the main characters puts it much more articulately; "the grief over a death of someone you loved can never be healed, we can only live with the sorrow and learn something out of it."
One loses a love, the other a best friend, and how that both brings them together and keeps them apart and confuses them.
One seeks comfort in solitude and the other is drawn to a free-spirited, fun person to forget the pain but ultimately realises that everyone harbours their own pain.
The colour palette is a major player in the movie as well – moving subtly from a golden orange warmth that you see in faded photographs from the 1970’s, to a cold blue and white devoid of the warm feeling and happiness. It completely embodies The Beatles’ lyrics in the song of the same title; "I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me."
It’s not a perfect movie; but the times that I found the storyline losing me, the visuals would again pull me back in. So be willing to just get lost in the memory, as it is a heavy topic, but you quickly see how this became the #1 best selling novel in Japan of all time.
Norwegian Wood
2 hr. 13 min.
Starring Ken’ichi Matsuyama, Rinko Kikuchi, Kiko Mizhuara.
Opens in New Zealand cinemas 6 October 2011.
Ariana Gillrie, 28 September 2011.
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