Norwegian Wood (2010)

This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Tran Anh Hung wrote the screen adaptation of Murakami's great, numinal novel (my signed galley proof of which will have to be prised from my cold dead hands), and slightly reapportions the themes and mood to great effect so that they work on the screen.Japanese cinema has motifs of servicing and venerating the dead to the extent that it consumes the living: see, for example, Ichikawa's masterpiece "The Burmese Harp." We know Naoko will die: the longueur, the moments in which she stares at the camera slightly too long hint at "Ugetsu monogotari" and convey to us that functionally she is no longer among the living. Her sojourn at a mountain retreat telegraphs the coming of her death as mountains do in "Ballad of Narayama."Toru can either go with life and time moving ahead, with the lively extrovert Midori, and wallow among death, the past, confusion and guilt. We have intimations of what he'll choose, though his process of getting there endears.Ably lensed, nicely scored, tenderly directed. Renki Kikuchi is quite brilliant, and Kiko Mizuhara in her first screen outing exudes promise.

I had seen this book in the store in the "In the movies" section and fell in love with the cover. I never read it though, because I wanted to watch the movie first. I'm a huge fan of Japanese movies and dramas and was really excited with it came out on netflix and watched it instantly. I was blown away by how beautiful it was shot, the scenery, the lighting, everything was absolutely gorgeous with out being overwhelming and dramatic. I thought that the story was so tragically romantic and stunning, and very different from other romance films where everything is peachy and they never really talk about things or show things as horrible as severe mental illness and suicide. While i wasn't expecting it to be as explicit as it was I was so glad that it was. From all the dramas and films I've watched from Japan, a lot of the time the actors will more so press their lips together and not actually kiss, it was a breath of fresh air to see them kissing compassionately and being so intimate. And to see such wonderful acting! And it was also refreshing to have such an "in your face" story that really peeled back a lot of rose color that is applied to romance films and cut the crap and really showed what it's like to deal with things that come out of loving someone. I thought that there were a few thing in this film that didn't seem very necessary to the story and probably could have just been cut out, but all of it was amazing and I'm very glad I watched it. I now hope to read the book.Also, I hope that those who enjoyed this might also consider watching 5 Liters of Tears. It's a fantastic Japanese drama that also is very deep and in your face about living with a terminal illness.

At the end of each year, members of the North West Film Society here in Tasmania are handed four green and one red dot, and we wander around rating the year's screenings, each film allocated its own board on a table.Guess which film gets my red dot? I'm pretty confident, even though it's only April, that I won't be changing my mind between now and December. My red dot is already allocated to this dreary, overly-long drudge.The characters are shallow and uninteresting and didn't attract any sympathy or empathy from me, even though two suicides are portrayed. When a suicide doesn't engender feelings of sympathy in the audience, you know something is wrong with the portrayal.Lifeless conversations about the young people's sexual experiences seemed artificial and to serve only one purpose: titillation for the audience. Although I'm in my sixties, this is not a complaint from an older person out of touch with sensuality. It's simply that several times I felt like groaning ("Oh, not again") and cringing because of the embarrassing script forced upon these young actors.Some of the rural cinematography is lovely, the soundtrack is appropriate, but the use of the Beatle's song in a Japanese film seemed out of place. I haven't read the novel, so maybe there is some connection not explained in the film. But this IS a film. I shouldn't have to rely on a book to understand what is going on.Overall, not enough was explained. I came away feeling that more could have been made of the characters, because as it stands none of them moved me.I keenly await December. The problem is, the red dot we are given (there is only one) is not blatant enough. I intend to buy a large, fluorescent, red dot and be the first to award it to this failure of a film.(As told to me by my partner Jenny)

Disappointing... Tran Anh Hung took off all the lightness and funny parts of the book (Reiko is so plain, guitar playing scene made cheesy), only to illustrate the angst of the characters, i.e, with looong shots of them yelling, drooling, crying over beautiful landscapes sceneries. And had I not read the book, the story would have seem to me like a classic cliché three-sided love with dull soppy moments (The amount of "I love you" scenes) . Plus, for once, Hung focused too much on the sexual aspect of the relationships, the scenes are indeed sensual, but it gets tiring after a while. Tran Anh Hung's hand immediately recognizable and what bothers me is that it seems to be exaggerated on purpose. "Let's make him cry with some flashbacks of her, and let's put long shots of waves crushing rocks to show the internal turmoil inside him, in case the yelling/drooling/unshaved look wasn't enough". Beautiful, subtle, yeah. Shallow, over-melodramatic, vapid and gloomy, hell yeah !