Norwegian Wood Film Review and Book Comparison

 Upon watching Norwegian Wood, it felt like it was a slimmed down version of the book without any extra information. It was like a piece of meat with the fat trimmed off. I noticed that there were many details missing from the film, but it kept the overall meaning or message from the book and didn't stray too much from the main objective of the story that was being given. With this being the case, we didn't see much of Storm Trooper or really go in-depth with the character as much as the book does. We also didn't see as much detail for the surroundings, the flag raising, and even the school riots that the book gives us in comparison. What was given to us were brief interluding segments that detailed what was happening, but nothing was explored in such a way that strayed from the main objective of the story in a picturesque way. It was also more focused on Watanabe and his connection to Naoko, Reiko, Midori, and Nagasawa. Everyone else was left out of focus in the big picture or played a fleeting role in the film.

Other than the details that were left out of the film, I appreciated the cinematic value the film had and the richness to the story it kept true. However, I thought there were moments with how they depicted Naoko that made me feel a bit creeped out or uncomfortable. For example, when Naoko is watching Watanabe sleep at night and when she leans in super close to his face and sniffs him. I felt like it was very odd behavior, but also foreshadowed her mental illness that would worsen as the movie went on until she ended up committing suicide. It was overall a sad movie and kept the same atmospheric feeling that the book gives the reader when they read and imagine the scenes from the writing in the book. There were scenes in the movie that were shown how I thought they would be from the book and there were other scenes that were shown that I didn't really imagine to how the film had it. Although, it was good to see it in the way that was shown in the film, because it changed my perspective of what I imagined from the book and it was intriguing to see it in the way the producers and directors of the movie created it to be.

As per movie ratings go on a movie critic scale, I'd give it a 4 out of 5 stars.

~ Jonathon Little