"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.