There is no doubt that the filming of the film is very careful, the green atmosphere of the sanatorium, the leisurely style of the wind-blown grass, the snow-covered forest, these external scenery that are repeatedly mentioned in the book, the film is perfectly presented, Coupled with the idolized actors, almost every frame can be frozen into a set of beautiful postcards.
Surprisingly, however, this turned out to be the only strength of the film. From "Norwegian Wood", but the complete departure of the film from the original book is outrageous.
What's hard to understand in the first place is why the movie abandoned the flashback structure of the original. The first sentence of the original novel is "I am 37 years old sitting on the Boeing 747 passenger plane." The tone of the whole novel is laid, that is, the protagonist is standing in this special period of about to enter middle age, looking back and forth at his early youth The tone of such memories is not actually youth. Instead, it is mixed with infinite melancholy and sadness, which is the key to why the novel can conquer countless readers. Of course, movies and novels are completely different art forms. However, what is Chen Yingying's intention to erase such traces is difficult for people to understand. After all, the film adaptation is not a superficial light novel like "Love in the Sky".
The second is the casting of the film. Frankly speaking, Matsuyama Kenichi and Kikuchi Rinko do not fit the image of the novel's protagonists Watanabe and Naoko, at least in terms of appearance. In the minds of readers, Watanabe should be an 18-year-old who looks more mature than his actual age. At least he will be dressed in a low-key and easy-going manner. Matsuyama Kenichi himself is still more than astringent, lacks maturity, and lacks persuasive appearance. And Watanabe's silent, calm, persistent, true, kind, not easily disturbed by the outside world, inner peace and strong characteristics, without the help of the script, Matsuyama Kenichi is completely impossible to show. On the contrary, it is Rinko Kikuchi. Although it is completely inconsistent with the slender, weak, and sensitive Naoko image in the novel in terms of appearance, Rinko Kikuchi's powerful acting ability plays a role in the latter part of the film, making people gradually accept the image of Rinko Kikuchi's Naoko. .
What's unbearable is the film's disregard for the details of the era. The film did not change the time when the story of the novel took place, and deliberately marked 1967 with subtitles at the beginning of the film, but it is ridiculous that in the next two hours of the film, whether it is character clothing, modeling, scene layout, and lighting. Photography and video all tell us that this story should take place in contemporary times, so we see that the protagonist's clothes are all colorful, fashionable and lively, even the mountaineering bag that Watanabe went to the mountains to catch up with the latest backpack trend, now go It's definitely available in big shopping malls; and Midori can show off her trendy hairstyle, most of which is the latest trend of the model in last year's Paris fashion show; of course, Watanabe and their 1960s middle school or college in the last century. , the swimming pool has been luxurious enough to be comparable to the current standard swimming pool, and is also equipped with large floor-to-ceiling glass, so that the protagonists can enjoy the transparent indoor sun bathing. Naoko's kitchen even has modern wall cabinets and a streamlined-looking mini fridge; sorry, it's hard for me to accept that this is 1960s Japan, which is not the same as the movie "Sanchome Sunset" or "20th Century Boys" The 1960s described in the book are completely two worlds. Is this a time-travel movie?
The movie's handling of sex is also disappointing: I believe every reader who has read the original will think that Naoko's sanatorium in the moonlight stripped off his clothes, revealing his underdeveloped breasts and a not-so-full waist, like a man. Standing in front of Watanabe like the goddess of the moon, that is the most perfect body in Watanabe's mind. This is the most beautiful scene in the book. This classic scene is enough to make every reader have the same imagination as the movie picture. When it was made into a movie, this scene was missing. How to convince people that this is "Norwegian Wood"? In addition, there is indeed a paragraph in the original book about how Naoko masturbated for Watanabe, but the original book happened in the middle of the night when the two were lying still in a nursing home. It happened very naturally, so there was no sense of obscenity. The movie moved this scene to the grass in the daytime, as if the two were deliberately masturbating in the natural environment, which has completely deviated from the motivation and environmental factors of the characters. And the scene of "The Expendables" masturbating to the Suez Canal is completely missing the props of the poster, so it's okay not to mention it, but it has to be reflected in the dialogue with Naoko, is this necessary?
In addition, the important images in the original book are discarded at will, resulting in an empty and vague character: in the original book, Watanabe loves jazz music, and Naoko loves Brahms classical music. " and other literary masterpieces also play a great role in shaping Watanabe's character. The Suez Canal poster in Watanabe's dormitory, the fireflies of the Expendables, and the disappearance are nothing. For the Beetle songs that appear many times in the original scenes, whether it is the Beetle The song "The Sun Rises From Here", or the Rolling Stones' song, was all absent in the movie, and the Beatles' famous song "Norwegian Wood", which was the title, was eventually reduced to an ending song. The rich musical material in the original book has almost disappeared in the movie, and the movie version of "Norwegian Forest" has almost no soundtrack!
In addition, the superficial performance of the student movement at the University of Tokyo shows the film's attempt to completely abandon the background of the characters' era. The fate of Zemen's characters does not stop there. Watanabe's sadness, melancholy and calm insistence exist in isolation.
So this is definitely not "Norwegian Forest" by Haruki Murakami, this is a nonsensical young man under 20 years old, inexplicably driving a depressive royal sister to death, successfully seducing a gay mature woman to bed, and at the same time looting effortlessly A loli's heart is dead, what a 21st century modern style of the post-90s boys and girls, it's completely Chen Yingxiong's lustful forest.
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