LoginI had no idea what to expect from this flick but since it was directed by Anh Hung Tran, I was quite eager to check it out. To be honest, I can’t believe it was the first movie I have seen from this director in the last 20 years (on the other hand, he has directed only 3 movies in the meantime). Well, first of all, I thought it was very brave from Tran Anh Hung, a Vietnamese director who spent most of his youth in France, to direct a Japanese movie. Unfortunately, even if the damned thing was, as usual with this director, visually really neat, I’m afraid it still didn’t really work though. Eventually, what was this movie about after all? Basically, it was about a young student who had the bad luck to fall in love with 2 very difficult girls. The first one, Naoko (very well played by Rinko Kikuchi), at least, had the excuse that she had been highly traumatised by the suicide of her first love, Kizuki, who happened to be also the best friend of the main character. Unfortunately, these characters were introduced within the 5 minutes only by voice-over and , by that point, Kizuki was actually already dead. As a result, this movie really suffered from the fact that the relationship between these 3 characters was never properly fleshed out from the start. With Midori, the other girl the main character fell in love with, it was even trickier as she was basically an annoying tease, at least, as far as I was concerned. Especially when she tried to explain what love meant for her, I thought it was just so infuriating and I actually felt like slapping the damned girl. The funny thing was that, I kept thinking about it and I came to the conclusion that, in fact, my wife more or less thinks the same way (even if she would completely deny it if I would ask her). So, there was some truth in this character but it didn’t change the fact that she was still borderline obnoxious. Eventually, the problem with this movie was that none of the characters was properly developed so I had a hard time to care about any of them. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Anh Hung Tran’s work.
Norwegian Wood Reviews
An average movie
Posted : 3 years, 4 months ago on 22 December 2020 11:13
0 comments, Reply to this entry
Norwegian Wood review
Posted : 10 years, 5 months ago on 13 November 2013 10:33
Lineal, not too respectful -it seems- to the prestigious bestseller source, a bit affected, with too pretty actors and actresses; it has some uniform and coherent and convincing melnacholic nostalgic mood.
0 comments, Reply to this entry
Norwegian Wood review
Posted : 11 years, 3 months ago on 7 January 2013 03:06
The picture was fantastic, the faces and the acting were superb. A nice film which talks about loss, love, loneliness, finding ownself, relationships, sacrifice and death. I never read the book and maybe I should have had but what I didn't like in this film was the silent moments which I think served no purpose. I enjoy those moments in films where silent scenes underline feelings, meanings and play an important role in the plot..but in this film there were a lot of silent scenes that had no role to play. I was told the book described the feelings and thoughts during these silent scenes. A nice film but it had the potential to be much better.
0 comments, Reply to this entry
Norwegian Wood review
Posted : 12 years, 9 months ago on 4 July 2011 06:43
There's a mistake the director made. It was to create a movie that is not indipendent from the book. If you've already read "Norwegian Wood", by Haruki Murakami, this film will be a very good occasion to see all those scenes that you found in the novel. And visually it's exactly like the book, every place, every face is just like I imagined while reading. Ken'ichi Matsuyama is a perfect Watanabe: a fine face not really handsome, common features like the common guy he plays. And great was is performance, Watanabe is a "witness of life" but extremely thoughtful. Full of feelings, Matsuyama is able to express them all without overacting. Nice performances by the actresses. Rinko Kikuchi seems to use her tall and strong body to play the tremendously fragile Naoko, highlighting how that frailty is just in her mind. Kiko Mizuhara is a lovely and lively Midori, the girl who represent a solution for Watanabe, teaching him how to live even without realizing she's doing that. Tetsuji Tamayama is handsome and dissolute like you expected from Nagasawa, but there's no much to say about it. And that's too bad, because what I really missed were all the minor characters that give strength and sometimes lighten the story, for example "Storm Trooper", Watanabe's roommate that - in the novel - is the one who make the reader laugh breaking the pression of thoughts and pain and stuff like this. I was disappointed Anh Hung Tran didn't give more space to Storm Trooper, making the whole movie a little too serious. Even Reiko seems to be a secondary character, while she's the key to the ending. In fact, leaving aside her story deprives the last scene of its meaning, looking like a senseless sex scene. Another thing in the ending very disappointing is that Watanabe find out of Naoko death before choosing Midori. In the book it's just the opposite: Watanabe picks Midori - so he picks life - before knowing Naoko killed herself. Inverting this fact has meant that Midori's not the first choice anymore but the only possible choice.
Finally, missing out some important features poses a risk for those who didn't read the novel to consider this movie a sucession of events that, at the end, don't go anywhere.
Finally, missing out some important features poses a risk for those who didn't read the novel to consider this movie a sucession of events that, at the end, don't go anywhere.
0 comments, Reply to this entry