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Norwegian Wood (Noruwei no mori)
Norwegian Wood (Noruwei no mori)
Release Date
11 Mar 2011
11 Aug 2011
- User rating
-
Currently
4/5 Stars.
- Critic rating
- Currently 3/5 Stars.
75% of raters want to see this movie
Certificate:
15A
Genre:
Drama
|
Romance
Haruki Murakami’s literary phenomenon, a million-selling chronicle of romantic obsession in late 1960s’ Tokyo, becomes a captivating celluloid mood piece in the hands of gifted French-Vietnamese auteur Tran Anh Hung. The maker of The Scent of Green Papaya, given Murakami’s blessing, creates a characteristically immersive sense of time and place as a university student finds himself torn between the troubled ex-girlfriend of a high-school pal who committed suicide and the fresh attractions of a coquette-ish undergraduate. Although it’s less plot-driven than the two-hour-plus running time might suggest, the languorous pacing can be justified by the story of a young man hovering between past and future, uncertainly disentangling true feelings from the idea of love itself. Thanks to brilliant cameraman Ping Bin Lee and the captivating, discordant sounds of Jonny ‘Radiohead’ Greenwood’s startling score, the film’s utterly responsive to the nuance of each emotional moment, and though it makes telling use of the eponymous Beatles number, krautrock legends Can dominate the soundtrack selection. Now that’s cool.
Cast:
Rinko Kikuchi
Writers:
Anh Hung Tran
|
Haruki Murakami
Producers:
Directors:
Anh Hung Tran
- Critic rating
-
Currently
3/5 Stars.
Movies.ie Critic Review
After his best friend commits suicide, 19-year old Watanabe (Matsuyama) heads to Tokyo, where he bumps into – and falls in love with – the deceased’s fragile girlfriend (Kikuchi). Fragile enough to disappear when Watanabe inadvertently triggers a memory of her dearly departed, leaving the dazed and confused, but plainly lucky, young lad to fall in love with the quirky Midori (Mizuhara).
THE VERDICT: Based on Haruki Murakami’s eponymous 1987 international bestseller, director Anh Hung Tran takes his sweet time in telling this tale of love and loss. The ambience is helped more than a little by Johnny Greenwood’s soundtrack, sitting nicely alongside the hipper-than-hip jukebox selection. It’s a tad long, but, given yourself over to this haunting tale, and there’s melancholy magic afoot.
Review by Paul Byrne
- Avg User rating
-
Currently
4/5 Stars.
User Reviews