Norwegian Wood: Book versus Movie

     While watching Norwegian Wood, I found much of the dialogue and mood of the movie to feel accurately reflective of the content of the book. However, the major points of discrepancy between the book and movie which stood out to me were in the portrayal of Naoko’s mental illness as well as the relationship between Toru and Reiko in the final scenes.            

Naoko’s mental illness first surfaces as expected, with her crying and then having intercourse with Toru on her 20^th birthday. After that, she falls off the map until she finally allows Toru to visit her at Ami Hostel. It is at this point that I started to feel the movie inaccurately represented her psychological state as well as her relationship with Toru. There are two times when Toru is visiting in the movie that she becomes upset and has a breakdown. In both, she becomes hysterical, screaming and crying, and Toru attempts to physically restrain her and hug her to calm her down. However, in the book, Naoko’s breakdowns typically involve her and Reiko alone, with Reiko providing comfort and Toru sent away where he won’t interfere with Naoko’s processing. In general, it feels that the movie downplays Reiko relationship with the two, while in the book, that relationship feels integral to the movement of the plot and depth of the characters.

            On that same note, when Reiko comes to visit Toru after Naoko’s death, the movie completely scraps the second funeral they throw for Naoko and makes it appear as if Toru is not fully on board with sleeping with Reiko. However, in the book, the funeral is an important turning point for Toru while he processes Naoko’s loss and leads fluidly into his sleeping with Reiko, a development which she suggests, and he admits to having been thinking the same thing. This is completely different from the portrayal in the book. I can imagine that explaining these events may have been too nuanced and time-consuming to make sense for the movie, but I also feel that the movie leaves out important parts of the book that lend themselves to the authentic, messy, human experience Murakami is so known for writing about.

Natalia Kelley