Blu-ray Review: NORWEGIAN WOOD

I wasn't too impressed with Ahn Hung Tran's adaptation Haruki Murakami€™s of modern literary classic, Norwegian Wood, when it played at last year's Venice Film Festival. At the time, tired and still getting to grips with the workings of the festival itself, I thumbed at my Blackberry and sent a short and hastily written three-star review in which I opined that the film represented a "handsomely made failure". I'd just read the novel on the flight to Italy and was struck by Hung's omission of certain (for me crucial) aspects, such as Murakami's framing of the story as a remembrance of an older man and the book's dry, socially conscious wit. Watching again, in order to review today's Blu-ray release, I think I got it wrong. For instance, Hung's decision to leave out explicit reference to Watanabe's story being a remembrance is actually completely necessary and ingenious. Beginning as the novel does, with a man in his thirties sitting on a plane in Germany remembering his youth and first romance, would have been odd for a movie. As an audience we would have constantly expected to see the older man again - we would have felt as though we were being brought up to speed on events rather than witnessing the events themselves (such is the function of the flashback in television and most movies). Another possible reason for this change is that film can express things wordlessly in a way literature obviously can not. By retaining the 1960s setting of the nineteen year-old Watanabe's story, Hung does not have to tell us we are looking back - if we are paying attention we should already know that. We are looking in on another time and with that comes a certain amount of nostalgia, sadness and regret; many of the emotions we experience in the novel, by virtue of an older man looking back at his life, we can also experience in this way if we resist the urge to view the film passively and actually read it as a cinematic text. It is in this way that I think I had the film all wrong when I reviewed it last year. Norwegian Wood, as a movie, attempts to embrace the cinematic form wholly. It avoids the main pitfall of the literary adaptation in that it decides to try and have the same effect as the novel and evoke the same feelings without using the text as the literal basis for a script. The film is light in terms of dialogue and even, at times, in terms of narrative, but Hung channels all the emotion of the book into the images. Images tell the story of love and loss in this adaptation of the novel. In the book, grown-up Watanabe can remember locations better than he remembers the people in them. He can barely remember himself looking back. Is it any wonder that the most memorable thing about Hung's film is his use of landscapes? Of seasons and trees, of idyllic rivers and of two handsome ciphers sitting somewhere in the middle of these beautiful things? Two tragic young lovers kissing in the snow. Maybe I'm just getting older, but even since last year I can see more significance in these images and see clearer how they magnify certain key themes and emotional concerns in the text wordlessly. On reflection this is not just a beautifully shot movie, but one infused with incredibly moving moments that really resonate, often thanks to the Academy Award nominated Rinko Kikuchi who gives everything to her fragile portrayal of the damaged Naoko. It isn't perfect, with much of the broader social commentary still missing on this repeat viewing, but this probably has more to do with Hung's disciplined and admirable decision to focus on this one aspect of the story in intense detail rather than sketch out a half-formed imitation of the novel. Extras Given the inflated cost usually inherent in buying "world cinema" releases on Blu-ray, or even DVD, it is refreshing to find that Soda Pictures have invested some time into ensuring that this is a release worth shelling out for. Aside from the fact that it looks and sounds stunning, Norwegian Wood also benefits from over an hour of pretty interesting special features which are all presented in HD (by which I mean that even the low quality interview footage is displayed without forcing your TV to pop into a lower resolution). Highlights of the post-screening press conference from last year's Venice Film Festival are included, running just over eight minutes and also featuring shots of the film's international première and brief interviews with the three principal actors. Similar to this are two more features of similar length which look at the Japanese première and the film's opening night, both of which boast entertaining footage of cast and crew introducing the film to audiences. The UK theatrical trailer is also included, as is a really nice slideshow of the Japanese promotional materials for the film (usually these "gallery" features are dull, but the posters on show here are worth a look). The centrepiece of the disc is a comprehensive 52 minute making of, which follows the shooting of the movie and boasts interviews with people from almost every aspect of the production. There are a few candid interviews with cast members to see here, as well as some really nice glimpses into the personalities of the actors on-set. But the highlight here is the insight we are given into the film's technical achievements: the sets which convince as outdoor locations, the great preparation and crew excitement surrounding the shooting of a wonderful tracking shot and the meticulousness of the director as he carefully composes each image. Norwegian Wood is out now on Blu-ray and probably DVD if you're still into that.