Norwegian Wood (Thoughts) - Reshma Subramonian

     The Norwegian Wood film was interesting, though not particularly something I can say I really enjoyed. 

One of the things that really stood out to me was the styling, which I can say that I really liked. There was

a distinct 'Westernness' to it, and I think that really captured that feel in Murakami’s works. The same goes

for the location of the music shop, which really stands out to me for a reason I’m not sure I can explain. 

I think that the loose-pacing of the book was somewhat doomed to not translate well to the screen. The book 

already doesn’t have much of a solid plot, and is extremely heavy on narration and reflection, so the movie 

feels like a series of events that are just stringed together, with certain scenes that feel like they drag on way

too long, and others that move by really fast. That said, I really liked the cinematography. It felt somewhat

claustrophobic and voyeuristic, which made scenes such as Kizuki’s suicide and Naoko and Toru sleeping

together even more uncomfortable. 

The portrayal of the women in the story stuck out to me. I think the casting of Reiko was unfortunate,

since she looks a lot younger than she’s described as looking in the book, which may have served to soften

her sleeping with Toru later in the film. I think Naoko was portrayed really well. It seemed quite obvious 

that she was struggling and going through a lot, which served to make some of Toru’s actions feel more 

thoughtless. I wonder if some of this can be attributed to how present Kizuki feels in the film as compared

to the novel and Toru’s own thoughts.