"I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me."

The burden that comes with watching a movie that has been adopted from a great novel (that you have already read) is that it will never amaze you as much as the book itself. These are two different mediums we are talking about and each of them has another beauty that makes something truly special shine out, however with the adaptation of "Norwegian Wood" from the same titled book by Haruki Murakami that was sadly not the case.
The book is one of my favorite books ever and I could read it over and over again. I sadly can’t say the same for the movie which was directed by Anh Hung. I can’t say I blame the director for this, for when I heard "Norwegian Wood" is being filmed I was quiet surprised, since I never thought that this book would ever be adapted into a movie. When you read it you will come to see what I mean. The book is told from the point of view of Toru and is based on his memory from when he is 19-20 year old just starting university and falls in love with his dead friend Kizuki's girlfriend. Their relationship is more of therapy for both of them to cope with Kizuki’s death, since later on Toru falls in love with another woman Midori, who is sweet and unique in many ways. Therefore the book is based on a lot of dialogues, a lot of letter correspondence between Toru and Naoko and the us told memory of the first person narrator Toru in the present day. It is hard to adopted a book like this into a movie, especially when the book concentrates on the lives of many different characters that enter Toru’s life during that period of the memory. In the movie version these lives are hardly reflected, like the life of Naoko’s roommate at the institution, Reiko that places a central role in the novel. It is only loosely mentioned at the very end as a failed effort to give Reiko’s character eventually a personality, because except for until the very end she is more of a ghost that loosely appears on Toru and Naoko’s side, rather then a key figure like in the novel. Other aspects that are dominate and of importance in the book that are missing in the movie are the presence of the song "Norwegian Wood". The book and the movie has its titled from that song, therefore as it is in the book so should it also been more dominate in the movie itself. It is never mentioned that this used to be the favorite song of Naoko, which is of essence. What the movie also lacks was an explanation for the reason Nagasawa and Toru became friends; they became friends because of their taste in books, especially American literature (just a small side-note: the reason for the dominance of American literature could actually be traced back the Murakami’s personal life, he was know to have translated numerous works of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Truman Capote, John Irving and the likes) and not only because Toru found Nagasawa's character appealing. Another aspect that was missing was an inside on Toru’s roommate Storm Trooper, who's character and life is a conversation starter for Toru when it comes to talking to girls. Storm Trooper was there one part of the movie and then he suddenly disappeared. Now for someone who did not read the book that was one of the many confusing moments with many more on top of that. The period that Midori and Toru don’t see each other in the book is quiet long, in the movie one might seem to think that they see each other every day of the week. Some characters were left in the shadow like Midori’s father with whom Toru has an interesting moment in the book, but not in the movie.
It is hard and I would like to stress that, very hard to adopted a highly praised book into a movie, but there have been successful adaptations, this was sadly not on of them. Yet the movie has its good parts, especially the close up still shots of the characters, when they have intimate or emotional moments on the screen, these are very poetic and prolonging for the sake of art.
The nature shots of spring, summer, fall and winter are beautiful and the two suicide parts of the movie, first one downplayed and last on poetic and tragic at the same time.
Anh Hung seemed to me, to be too keen to fit all aspects of the book into a roughly 2 hour movie, which led to the loose of  important information on the way of trying. He should have taken up a whole other tactic to adopt this book on to the screen, since this one did not give the desired outcome, however it is still an enjoyable movies and the actors and actresses showed promising talent.
Haruki Murakami is one of the, as so often truthfully quoted, most outstanding and unique authors of our time. He published his book “Norwegian Wood” in 1987, which became hugely popular amongst young Japanese, but received critics from his longtime fans, because he did hit another direction, which was criticized as not being faithful to his original style, yet it became one of his most popular works together with “Kafka on the Shore” (2002) and “Sputnik Sweetheart” (1999).




Quote from the book:
"Do you really promise to never forget me? she asked in a near whisper. "I'll never forget you," I said. "I could never forget you."
(.....)
The more the memories of Naoko inside me fade, the more deeply I am able to understand her. I know, too, why she asked me not to forget her. Naoko herself knew, of course. She knew that my memories of her would fade. Which is precisely why she begged me never to forget her, to remember that she had existed.
The thought fills me with an almost unbearable sorrow. Because Naoko never loved me. -Norwegian Wood (book)-

--> We all want to be immortal, even  if only in someones memory, at least we get to live a little while longer. Maybe that was the reasons amongst many others I assume Naoko's favorite song was "Norwegian Wood" by the Beatles, after all its about a girls the he once knew.

Starring
Kenichi Matsuyama
Rinko Kikuchi
Kiko Mizuhara

I once had a girl, or should i say, she once had me.
She showed me her room, isn't it good, Norwegian wood?
She asked me to stay and she told me to sit anywhere,
So i looked around and i noticed there wasn't a chair.
I sat on a rug, biding my time, drinking her wine.
We talked until two and then she said, it's time for bed.
She told me she worked in the morning and started to laugh.
I told her i didn't and crawled off to sleep in the bath.
And when i awoke i was alone, this bird had flown.
So i lit a fire, isn't it good, norwegian wood.

"A Real Hero":The plot is the basis, the rest is essential.

It is truly rare one comes across movie masterpieces recently, but "Drive" will be up there to share the limelight with all the other movies that have made it into the valuable book of masterpieces in film history so far. Two other names besides the movie that will also make it into their respective lists, will be director Nicolas Winding Refn and actor Ryan Gosling.
While Ryan Gosling has been one of the most brightest stars up there in the spotlight in the current generation, with great movies such as "Half Nelson", "Lars and the Real Girl" or "Blue Valentine", the movie that made him a household name in a house with teenagers was perhaps THE romance movie of the 21st century until this day, "The Notebook". No matter how popular Ryan Gosling came to be, his choice of movies was not too often, within the blockbuster category, but within a category of movies that have caught the attention of film critics and established him as the talented actor he is. With "Drive" Ryan Gosling took on a role of a loner wheel-man for hire, who occasionally does stunt driving for movie productions and works at a garage at daytime, other then that he is more a shadow in society then an active member, the driver is the 21st century model of Robert DeNiros character in "Taxi Driver" just a look at the way Goslings and DeNiros character walk with both hands in the jacket pocket, is an amazing and one of many parallels between the two characters, though the cause that lets them become violent differ from each other. Nicolas Winding Refn, likewise steps into the footsteps of a great director who made his name in the movie business with "Taxi Driver", Martin Scorsese. Previously Nicolas Winding Refn was known for his movies "Push" (1996) and "Bronson" (1999), which he had written and directed at the same time. This time, the movie was adopted to the screen by Hossein Amini from James Sallis same titled novel "Drive".
The screen however does not only belong to one recent household name in Hollywood, but two, Carey Mulligan, who plays the role of Irene. The rest of the cast include Bryan Cranston, Albert Brooks, Oscar Isaac, Ron Perlman and Christina Hendricks.

"Drive" is set in Los Angeles and centers around the main character, whose name never gets revealed, he is therefore referred to as Driver. The driver who mainly lives in the shadow of society, will eventually have to face the sunshine. When he moves into his new apartment he becomes acquainted with his neighbor Irene and her son. He finds out that her husband is in prison, but is soon to be released once the emotional relationship between the driver and Irene strengthens. The driver becomes emotionally attached to Irene and his son and after he finds out that her husband Standard faces problems, due to some money he borrowed while he was in prison and endangers his family through his act, the loner decides to stand up for something and fight for what he loves and believes in, the protection of Irene and her son.

While the plot of the movie might seem cliche to a lot of people, the style of the movie certainly is not and it is not a way of filming that everyone could have pulled of just like that.
The whole movie might seem like an art of minimalism, which it is not, it is an aesthetically rich movie. If you listen to the dialogue there is hardy any dialogue existent except for when it is necessary, the movie speaks through its aesthetic and that is what makes it so amazing. The music, the editing, the mise-en scene, the slow motions and especially the camera movements and cinematography deserve the highest praise. All the components fit together and make the movie to the master pieces it deserves to be. The beauty of the whole movie is, the plot is so cliche, yet the whole movie is not. Further even if you knew the content of the movie from A to Z, which is not hard to guess after 20 minutes into the film, you will still enjoy every minute of it.
The music and introduction of the movie refer back to movies made in the 80s like Beverly Hills Cops or the likes, especially the use of color and font of the title and names of the cast, this sarcastic touch already shows that this movie will be a aesthetic joyride. The camera movements especially in the scenes within the car are just breathtaking and function us a narrator, it does immediately evoke the set of "Taxi Driver" in the viewers head. The use of color, especially the yellow red colors during the night scenes, strengthen the argument. The whole film moves in a slow pace, with further additional slow motion scenes to stress certain situations more then they have to be, show what powerful tools cinema offers aside from dialogue. Most of the time the viewer knows what certain scenes are about without having to listen to the upcoming dialogue, since the film techniques give away the content of it all.  For example the scene where the driver drives back into the car park of the building he lives in and a slow motion sets in while he drives past two strong looking men, him looking at them and them looking at him, makes one already assume what happened, which follows right after.
Though the picture on the screen is constantly moving, either through the moving camera that follows our hero or through cuts, that immediately though yet softly link us to another scene or character, there are still scenes in which the picture stands still for a surprising moment of time, until the desired outcome is revealed, like at the very end of the movie, where the camera holds still on a close up shot of the drivers heat, showing him nor moving nor blinking for what seems forever in the theater, the camera only starts to move once we know the outcome, it is simply breathtaking.
Another example of a scene within the movie that proves how dialogue can be irrelevant in a movie is through the combination of music,picture and editing. This combination is used here in order to portrait the inner feeling of the characters, is the scene where Irene's husband comes back home from prison and a party is given in his honor. Irene stands in the kitchen staring at the scene of people welcoming back her husband, but is with her thoughts seemingly far away and the driver sitting in his room, hearing the music that comes from the party, working at some machine part, with thoughts fixed on something else, Irene. The lyrics of the diegetic music that plays at the party "“I don’t eat. I don’t sleep. I do nothing, but think of you. You keep me under your spell" and the cuts between Irene and the driver, tells us more than perhaps words ever cut, but more so this style shows it to us in an aesthetic and beautiful way.
The whole soundtrack with is electronic music is amazing, especially in connection with the scenes, The main song of the movie "A Real Hero" by College feat. Electric Youth describes the main character the driver perfectly and also refers to the content of the movie. Simply an amazing use of footage within a movie.
The movie refers to action movies of the 70s-80s with its sound,plot and style at times (style of the cars, of the way the driver dresses ect), plus further refers back to the movie "Taxi Driver".  Yet, even though there are footprints or hints to other genres and movies, it is its own masterpiece that has not existed in this combination, making the movie into a new type of viewing experience.  

The beauty of "Drive" is that this is finally a movie that shows once more that film is art and that the art of film is an important factor within the hole process and the plot quiet irrelevant. This is what "Drive" is about, the art of movies and the art of citation with a new signature. The plot is the basis, the rest is essential.