“To love someone so surely, without the smallest doubt.”

Let me tell you this first: it is very hard to set aside biases when one is talking about something that means so much to them. Like how you would expect a feminist to fight tooth and nail on discussions on women’s rights (I just have to say this because after all, March is Women’s Month) or say, Carlos Celdran on RH Bill.

My love for Norwegian Wood is something I’ve carried with me for a long time. I first came across it when I first bought my first Haruki Murakami book, Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, a collection of Murakami’s short stories. Many acknowledge Murakami’s strength in the said literary form and being a lover of short stories myself, I couldn’t agree more. With the said collection, one story jumped right out of the pages and straight into my consciousness and that was Firefly. I remember reading it on a bus going home to Fairview and I shamelessly cried right then and there. It was one of those rare moments when a story does not only tug your heartstrings but grabs it, owns it and never lets it go. I had no idea that Firefly was later on expanded to become the great novel that is Norwegian Wood and that has simply multiplied my love for it tenfold. And now, with the movie adaptation directed by Tran Anh Hung, my heart has ballooned to something that could embrace the entire universe.

Above anything else, let it be known that it is hard for a movie adaptation to be entirely loyal to written manuscript. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy probably is the closest thing we could get to a faithful adaptation. However, what it tried to compensate content-wise has given way to cracks in the movie such as its incredibly long adaptations and arduous story telling. (But don’t get me wrong. I love LOTR).  Going by this formula, it is only logical that the Director must then omit unnecessary portions without destroying the entire flow and aesthetics of the movie and at the same time, focus on the core of the story. This is exactly what Tran Anh Hung did with Norwegian Wood. The movie is two-hour long and yet the story isn’t dragging. Tran Anh Hung managed to capture the essence of the story (the sexual predicaments of the characters, the unrest of Tokyo in the ‘70s, the longing and the waiting) and create this sweet and concise brew of a movie.

One could just bathe in the movie’s entire atmosphere which can be attributed to the amazing cinematography and the soundtrack which has set the mood for the entire movie. Murakami, a known music lover, has always integrated his love for music into almost all of his writing and Johnny Greenwood of Radiohead surely did justice to that aspect of the movie. After all, a novel that revolves around this amazing song by The Beatles surely deserves a great soundtrack to accompany it. Something that comes hand in hand with this is how pretty the movie is shot after shot. It is nice to see how the lush green sceneries and the cold, bitter winter played so much into the emotions of the scenes. Probably one of my favorite moments in the movie is the shot showing Toru in recluse after Naoko committed suicide. The shot shows Kenichi Matsuyama in unbearable grief, shouting his sadness and all you can see and hear is the vast expanse of the angry waves smashing right in to the rocks. Who needs to hear the actor shout when all you need to put across the screen is right there, in that bleak and harrowing landscape?

As far as the actors are concerned, I honestly think that Rinko Kikuchi was impressive in her portrayal of grief-stricken Naoko. You can feel how her love for Toru is being torn apart by her inability to be sexually aroused and her fragility. Kenichi Matsuyama, on the other hand, is a total surprise. Gathering his most fan base right after he played L in the movie adaptation of “Death Note” (not to mention his hilarious stint as Krauser in Detroit Metal City), he was as shy and reserve as the Toru in the book was. Although personally speaking, the Toru in the movie was a bit bland when compared to that Toru written by Murakami. Kiko Mizuhara as Midori was quite flat which can probably be traced to the director’s treatment of how the movie adaptation should be which was focused on the story line rather on the development of characters. Tranh Anh Hung has some work cut out for him. Imagine giving life to people drawn from the imagination of someone as profound and deep as Murakami. This is where probably the only weakness of the entire film comes in. Do not expect the wisdom of Toru, the wit and occasional perversions of Midori and the helplessness of Naoko as you’ve read it in the book. The Storm Trooper was a shadow in the movie and Reiko was a mere boarder. To expect everything from the novel to transpire in the movie is pure stupidity and ignorance. Remember, it took a lot of convincing to make Murakami say yes, four years actually, to Tranh’s intention. Murakami was very protective of this particular novel and only said yes on the condition that he would like to know the budget and he would like to read the script first. The entire movie has Murakami’s blessing and probably the best one could make out of such a difficult task.

Whatever’s been said and done, I am bound to love this movie. This is one of those moments where you are just thankful to see characters you so love so much in the flesh. (I remember the first time I saw Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter). It took a lot of waiting, a lot of re-reading and a lot of not expecting too much from the movie for me to be able to be at this moment, writing this instead of doing my job (which I think I deserve since today marks the first year I’ve been with this company, the longest I’ve stayed in a job ever) and to say to you that I love this movie with all my heart.

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