Norwegian Wood (ノルウェイの森) is a 2010 Japanese romantic drama film written and directed by Tran Anh Hung, based on the 1987 novel by Haruki Murakami. It was released in Japan on 11 December 2010. The score was composed by Jonny Greenwood.

Plot

Toru Watanabe is a quiet and serious young man in 1960s Tokyo whose personal life is in tumult, having lost his best friend Kizuki after he inexplicably commits suicide. Seeking an escape, Toru enters a university in Tokyo. By chance, during a walk in a park, Toru meets Kizuki's ex-girlfriend Naoko, and they grow close. Naoko continues to be devastated by the loss of Kizuki and spirals into a deep depression. Toru sleeps with Naoko on her 20th birthday. Shortly afterwards, Naoko withdraws from the world and leaves for a sanitarium in a remote forest setting near Kyoto. Toru is anguished by the situation, as he still has deep feelings for Naoko, but she is unable to reciprocate. He also lives with the influence of death everywhere, while Naoko feels as if some integral part of her has been permanently lost. He continues with his studies, and during the spring semester meets an attractive girl and fellow student Midori, who is everything that Naoko is not—outgoing, vivacious, and supremely self-confident. The story then follows Toru as he is torn between the two women in his life, and choosing between his past and his future.

Cast

Soundtrack

The score was composed by Jonny Greenwood. He used a Japanese nylon-strung guitar with home recording equipment from the 1960s, attempting to create a recording that one of the characters might have made.

Release

This film debuted in the 67th Venice International Film Festival where it competed for the Golden Lion. It was then subsequently released in Japanese cinemas on 11 December 2010. In the United Kingdom, it was released on 11 March 2011. In the United States, the film had a limited release on 6 January 2012 in New York City and Washington D.C. In Canada, the film was released on 2 March 2012.

Reception

The Daily Telegraph said that Hung was "brave" to attempt to adapt Murakami's 1987 novel but that "the film comes across as a mere summary of Murakami's book". Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote that it "registers less as a coherent narrative than as a tortuous reverie steeped in mournful yearning".

Accolades