The most familiar stranger

Summer 2022-04-24 07:01:27

Although I am not a fan of Haruki Murakami, I really like the book "Norwegian Forest". Although I know that many films adapted from literary works are very unpleasant, I still yearn for the filming of novels. After two hours, I couldn't help but wander beyond the artistic conception. I pondered and thought about what constitutes the psychological space and time of the movie, and why the narrative sequence of the paragraphs is faithful to the original and the plot that develops faithfully seems to be in ONE. The slow shockwave of the three-nosed captain in PIECE is just as tedious and boring.

In the novel, everyone can be forgiven, although there is evil, but everyone is multi-faceted, people can't bear to scold. In the movie, everyone is unforgivable because their complex personalities are not revealed, which eventually devolves into unmotivated flirting, self-mutilation, and slightly hypocritical sadness. There are only a few shots of Kiyuki in the film, and the young man walking around the pool table is not as friendly, funny and optimistic as Watanabe recalls in the book. Because such a person's suicide can change the fate of another boy and girl. The dumb radio gymnastics roommate in Watanabe's dormitory just walked through the scene as if to pay homage to passerby A. Those who didn't know it thought that a certain classmate in Q10 had gone to the wrong place. Bisexual Reiko's past is completely erased, and it looks like just a dissatisfied OBASAN. Midori's strength is more like vexatiousness in the movie. Without the support of these characters, the whole movie seems like a twisted and perverted version of "Calling for Love in the Center of the World", stupid and not loving. The film also dilutes the background of the times that affects all the characters, leaving only a scene of an empty student rushing into the classroom to fight the Vietnam War. It's as if a loyal reader made a brief reading note of his favorite scenes and sentences in the book, and then turned this note into a movie. The vivid characters in the book have also become the most familiar strangers.

Still thankful for this movie, in the footsteps of Naoko, who was walking around in the awn grass before dawn, we shuttled back to our own youth.

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Extended Reading

Norwegian Wood quotes

  • Naoko: Please remember me forever. Please always remember that I existed and was here by your side. Will you promise?

    Toru Watanabe: I promise I'll always remember.

  • Toru Watanabe: With each passing season, I grow father away from the dead. Kizuki remains 17. Naoko remains 21. For eternity.