Thoughts on the Norwegian Wood Film

I watched the Norwegian Wood film, and going into it I was very curious about how the novel would translate into cinema. I think it's always interesting to see how a piece of work gets adapted from one type of media into another, seeing where the stories compliment or hinder a specific type of media. I am often cautious with book to movie adaptations, and with Murakami's writing in particular, I felt like it might be harder to capture his essence on the big screen. I feel like so much of Murakami's writing has to do with building a particular atmosphere and following the inner monologue of the protagonists that it would be really difficult to translate this well into cinema.

I did think that the movie did a good job at capturing the atmosphere and mood of Murakami. The cinematography and soundtrack evoked a feeling reminiscent of Murakami's prose for me. Despite being filtered through a different medium and through the inputs of several other people, there was something Murakami-esque about the choices made in the film.

That being said, with the nature of it being a movie instead of a novel, the film lacked the experience of being able to follow Toru's inner monologue. Toru generally perceives things from somewhat of a distance, as is typical of Murakami's protagonists, but without being directly exposed to his mindset in the movie, scenes and actions felt perhaps more intense as we observe them from a more objective perspective.

Overall, I didn't love the movie and wouldn't watch it again, but it was interesting to see someone's attempt at translating Murakami onto the big screen. In general, I feel like his writing is quite hard to adequately adapt into cinema due to the nature of his works, but perhaps there is a particular adaptation out there that manages to do so successfully.

- Ananya