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Norwegian Wood (2010)

Director: Tran Anh Hung

Time Out rating

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17 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

Vietnamese director Tran Anh Hung has a distinct curiosity about the significance of music, both in everyday life and in cinema. A recurring scene from his gorgeous 2000 film ‘At the Height of Summer’ saw a young couple waking each morning to the strains of the Velvet Underground’s ‘Pale Blue Eyes’ and engaging in a ritualised early-morning ballet of stretches and ablutions. At a pivotal moment in his wistful and agonisingly poignant new work – a thoughtfully abridged adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s lilting 1987 chronicle of late-teen neurosis in 1960s Tokyo – a young woman, Naoko (Rinko Kikuchi), who’s still traumatised by the suicide of a schoolyard sweetheart, breaks down when a friend casually strums through a rendition of The Beatles’ torch song ‘Norwegian Wood’. The idea that something as ephemeral as a pop song could release a storm cloud of sorrows encapsulates the objectives of this film. It asks: how can we ever really be sure of love without understanding the hidden impulses of others? And what’s the point of love if death’s cruel hand can swipe at any moment?

The film is set during a period of revolutionary upheaval, but Tran does not dwell on context, as if to say that this story transcends all links to broader society. Kenichi Matsuyama plays Watanabe, a bookish student struggling to figure out whether his love of Naoko is born of the need to save her from herself, or whether the suicide of Kizuki (her boyfriend and his best friend) has gifted them with a unique perspective on each other’s fractured emotional state. Much of their anxiety derives from sex, his sense of selfish pleasure-seeking, and her need to explore her own sexual incompetence. Matters get more complex when sex-savvy Midori (Kiko Mizuhara) enters the fray, and Watanabe must weigh up his sense of responsibility against his more base desires.

It’s an unhurried and precise film, but approach it on these terms and you’ll find a sensitive, profoundly perceptive and life-affirming study of what it means to develop a bond with someone else. And as an unblinking portrait of the abject, sometimes self-destructive, almost unendurable distress suffered after the loss of a loved one, the movie recalls no less a masterpiece than Bergman’s ‘Cries and Whispers’.

The performances of the young cast attain an affecting blend of reticence and hope, but it’s Tran’s fastidious technique that nudges the film into the realms of greatness. His prowling Steadicam circles the protagonists from behind curtains and shelves, giving both interior and exterior scenes an added sense of intimacy. His bold use of colour, too, emphasises the volatility of the characters by oscillating between warm browns, fulsome ochres and chilly blues or sharp whites. The swelling Arvo Pärt-like score by Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood offers subtle hints rather than obvious cues to how we should read these intense situations. But it’s the clever use of Can’s Krautrock tear-jerker ‘Mary, Mary So Contrary’ that best captures the mood of this remarkable and devastating work.

Author: David Jenkins

Time Out London Issue 2116: 10 – 16 March, 2011

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User reviews of this film

dan33 said...

Posted on Jan 13 2012 22:43 Dull and pretentious. Can't believe all the gush. Don't bother.

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Kitty said...

Posted on Oct 29 2011 11:14 Spent the whole movie looking at my watch hoping for it to finish. Save your $$ and your time. I would only give it one star

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Joe said...

Posted on May 31 2011 11:56 This is probably the worst film I have seen this year. Looks cinematic but this type of story would be more suited for a short film. If you're fluent in Japanese, then the acting and dialogue will seem fake.

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Harry said...

Posted on May 20 2011 19:42 This film is extremely tiresome. It goes on forever. I failed to empathise with either of the main characters. The female lead was particularly self obsessed and unattractive. At least they dressed well. Sure it looks good and it's worth appreciating that, but then you can leave like a few of the others seem to have done. Either that, or don't go in the first place.

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Tom said...

Posted on Mar 30 2011 08:40 david glowacki:- I’m a newspaper boy and get to read the front of all newspapers. I like the look of this film. Should I go see it? What do you think, or should I just stay in and get my GCSE’s?

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Mike said...

Posted on Mar 22 2011 06:19 I found it cold and sterile, and I had little interest in the characters. It looked great in places, but seemed protracted. Unusually, I left early rather than try and sit it out.

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tilldip said...

Posted on Mar 17 2011 08:51 my mum gets the guardian but i read the independent. do you think I might like it? i do sometimes look at the evening standard as well but don't suppose that counts? my mum's 38 years older than me. does that help

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david glowacki said...

Posted on Mar 16 2011 17:11 Mike...No it just means the Guardian readership is a bit older or mature than time out readers..There is a huge cultural chasm between the ages

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Mike said...

Posted on Mar 16 2011 02:36 @David Glowaki: "4 stars l suspect not a film for Time Out readers more for the Guardian type". Ouch. Are you also saying that if I enjoy this film I should move to Islington, become vegan, and wear Clarks sandals (with socks) in winter?

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Jean-Michel Genre said...

Posted on Mar 15 2011 15:49 I thought this was an excellent adaptation of the Murakami novel - anyone who has any appreciation of nuanced Japanese cinema (Ozu, Mizoguchi. Kore-Ada) will probably love this film. I'm quite surprised by the bad reviews above but don't let that put you off if you like decent cinema.

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david glowacki said...

Posted on Mar 15 2011 00:43 Having read the book and finding it rather dull and insipid,l was pleasantly surprised that the film achieves much more than the book.
The film is darker,more morose than the book.The acting is rather good,particularly the leads friend's rich girlfriend,Hetsumi.
A suicide traumatises Wantanabe and the lead female,but in different ways he just about copes and she breakdown.The shared experience of the suicide binds them together in a very dark way.
It is a good film,but a little spoilt towards the end by the oversentimental violins bleating away in the background.
Not as good as the director's earlier work "Scent of the green Papayer" However because it is rare to find a film better than the book...4 stars l suspect not a film for Time Out readers more for the Guardian type

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ingrid said...

Posted on Mar 14 2011 17:54 I'm being generous giving the film 2 stars because it looks beautiful. It is so desperately boring. I didn't feel empathy for or interest in the characters as they were so apathetic, one-dimensional . I just wanted them to put an end to it all and be done with it so I could leave the ciinema!

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Jamie said...

Posted on Mar 11 2011 22:43 One of the most pointless and overrated films I have ever seen and I walked out for the fourth time in 40 years as a cinema lover because it was utterly awful. Two overgrown adolescents mooning around...no plot...no characterisation...no nothing. Dreadful. If you had minus star ratings I would give it -5

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Phil Ince said...

Posted on Mar 11 2011 16:28 Seemed inert because it was over-crowded. Was this an excessively-detailed precis? It wasn't any more affecting than a Wikipedia summary. The music often felt like an series of hysterical cliches. I really couldn't find any meaning in the story; the performances left me cold.

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Phil Ince said...

Posted on Mar 11 2011 15:55 Just over 2 hours of blank looks interrupted now and again by some unconvincing crying. The Japanese have nice snow.

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