Movie Review

Norwegian Wood

Norwegian Wood, the new film by Tran Anh Hung, based on the novel by Huraki Murakami, is a slow and quiet affair, suffused with genuine emotion. Watanabe (Ken’ichi Matsuyama), now an older businessman, recalls his young adulthood and the relationships that shaped it, particularly his affairs with the tragically broken Naoko (Rinko Kikuchi) and the charming and resilient Midori (Kiko Mizuhara).

As the movie starts, Watanabe and Naoko are friends, tied together by their best friend and soul-mate (respectively), Kizuki. When Kizuki commits suicide, it fractures both characters and they head in different directions. When they meet up in Tokyo, several years later, they form a tenuous relationship of their own, but Naoko is haunted by the death of Kizuki and it leads to a mental breakdown. Watanabe tries to help Naoko, drawn by a mixture of love and guilt, and it is this interaction that forms the heart of the story. At the same time, he meets Midori, a fellow student, with whom a mutual attraction exists, but their existing relationships keep them at arm’s length.

A film like this hangs entirely on the chemistry of its leads and Norwegian Wood is exceptionally lucky here. Both of the major relationships, Watanabe and Naoko and Watanabe and Midori, feel completely honest. There’s a constant sense of desire between the actors and their interactions are not only believable, but affecting enough to make you really care for the characters, even when their actions are questionable or downright stupid. Mizuhara, as Midori, is particularly noteworthy; bringing a brightness to proceedings that lifts the story away from the tragedy it could otherwise have become mired in.

There are a number of sex scenes throughout the movie, but they’re more awkward than titillating, and the one point of consummation between Watanabe and Naoko is one of the most painfully uncomfortable moments I’ve seen in cinema. That’s intended as a compliment, not a criticism though because, again, it’s the realism that grounds the tale and links the audience to its characters.

The cinematography and staging is stunning throughout, mixing wonderfully detailed internal spaces with jaw-droppingly beautiful landscapes. Snow-clad hills, Autumnal trees, Spring flowers, tempestuous seas, all create a stunning backdrop to the tale and the reflection of the emotional state of the characters in the seasons around them lends a nicely poetic edge to the narrative.

Johnny Greenwood’s score, while musically interesting, is a bit lacklustre in the context of the film, and is my one real complaint. Norwegian Wood uses silence and ambient sound particularly well and this stillness infuses the movie. The best soundtracks in a film like this are those that you barely notice, but that subtly enhance the scene. While the music itself is fine, the score is far too loud in the second half of the film, becoming the focus at times, to the detriment of the story.

This won’t be for everyone. Slow and elegiacal, with only a handful of characters, all of them damaged and at times selfish, this is nevertheless a beautiful piece of cinema. It transports the viewer wholeheartedly to a time, a place and an emotional state that lingers long after the credits roll.

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