The art of cinema no.1
Norwegian Wood
I wrote last year about how nervous I was for the film adaptation of Murakami's Norwegian Wood; a particular favourite of mine, I hoped the film would capture the loss of innocence, sadness and nostalgia so perfectly depicted in the novel.
Upon watching it recently I was happy to discover a beautifully cast and incredibly stylish film which does complete justice to the book. The soft colour grading of the mise-en-scène perfectly evokes the late 1960s/early 1970s setting, and the cinematography and production design is mesmerising without detracting from the narrative.
Would love to hear everyone else's opinion on the film, particularly if you love the book!
Screencaps from Norwegian Wood taken by me
I loved both the book and the film. But I don't think the film captures the book in its entirety, just because there isn't the time to build all of the characters in the same way a book can. The strong points for me was the cinematography and the casting of Rinko Kikuchi as Naoko
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed Norwegian Wood, but I haven't seen the film yet. Glad to hear that it wasn't awful though! It'll definitely be on my 'to watch' list now x
ReplyDeletea, yes I get what you mean. I think they did do a great job considering but it's definitely one of his only books that could be made into a film. There are such strong metaphysical components in most of his novels that would make it impossible. Agreed on the casting though, and I also thought Kiko Mizuhara was very cute as Midori!
ReplyDeleteMary, yes do see it, I hope you like it.
x
I've loved the book and downloaded the movie a while ago but have had yet to find the time to watch it. I'm glad you liked it though, it was one of the things holding me back. I re read the book and downloaded the movie straight after and kind of wanted to wait a little in between reading it and watching it so I wouldn't just pick at what wasn't similar enough
Deletex
Haven't read the book, but thought it made a wonderful, wonderful film!
ReplyDelete