Transliteration: Noruwei no mori
English Title: Norwegian Wood
Country: Japan
Director: Tran Anh Hung
Release: December 11, 2010
Rating: Not Rated
Main Cast:
Kenichi Matsuyama (松山ケンイチ) ... Toru Watanabe
Rinko Kikuchi (水原希子) ... Naoko
Kiko Mizuhara (水原希子) ... Midori
Quick Synopsis:
Toru Watanabe's life has become unstable the moment Naoko entered his life. They were childhood friends until the his best friend and Naoko's boyfriend committed suicide years before. Toru Watanabe ends up falling in love with her. However, Naoko's inability to get over Kizuki's death complicates their relationship. He is surrounded by the influence of death until he meets Midori. Making him choose between his past or his future.
My Thoughts:
Story Line:
To be honest, I only watched the film because I thought the movie poster was interesting. It reminded me of Koizora so I decided to check it out. The story line is based off the book by the same name that was written by Haruki Murakami. I do not know much about the book but my guess is the film did not do it much justice. I felt like everything about it was dull and the dialogue was monotone. There were never any changes in the way any of the actors spoke. The story also had a backdrop of student's protesting but did not resurface at all after the beginning. Everything about this film just made it seem more and more dark and depressing. I felt so bad for Toru because he really did love Naoko. However, she was too affected by Kizuki's death that she became mentally unstable and could not cope. I also hated the ending. When we could finally see some light shine on Toru's life, the film ended. What the hell? We should have seen a glimpse of how is life got better, if it did get better.
Cast:
Based on how everything they did looked somewhat robotic to me, I did not care much for the cast. I have seen Kenichi Matsuyama and he was no different here than when he was playing L in the live action of Death Note. Same goes for Rinko Kikuchi, to me it looks like she is unable to tap into some real emotions just like she was unable to do so in Pacific Rim. The only actress I have never seen before was Kiko Mizuhara. I will have to see them in some more films to be able to give my final opinions of them.
Music:
I do not know much about music from the 60's but I guess this film made sure that the songs chosen were from that time period. The songs were okay. I did not like them but they added to the sort of stillness of the movie.
Overall I would rate this drama with a 2/5.
Available Online:
-Netflix
Related Titles:
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