On Norwegian Wood's film version

 In general, I found the portion of Norwegian Wood that we watched in class to be more fast-paced than I had expected. There was also less dialogue than I thought there would be, making the plot flow feel somewhat disjointed and sparse in detail. On the other hand, I thought the casting for Midori and Naoko was really well done.

The use of setting also stood out to me. Notably, the forest was used as background scenery in many more scenes than Murakami had put in the book. Specifically, Midori and Toru sit together on a bench in the woods; Naoko and Toru's walk together doesn't ever show them leaving the forest; and Toru first meets Reiko in the forest instead of inside one of Ami Hostel's buildings, as Murakami had written it. I suppose the director was attempting to make the forest a much more central motif than it originally was in order to better match the book's title. This change also could have been to create more continuity between Toru's interactions with each woman, creating a more obvious link between them for the viewer. Or maybe it's just to more intensely foreshadow Naoko's death in the forest.

However, the biggest scene change for me was that of Toru and Midori's first kiss. Rather than kissing out on the balcony as they watched a burning building, the director chose to make them kiss by a window as the rain pours down outside. I don't know whether this decision was made in order to tone down Midori's eccentricity (it was her suggestion to watch a building burn down for fun, after all) or if this was meant to add to the element of rain Murakami employs in the book (like the scene where Toru and Midori kiss on the street in the middle of a rainstorm). Murakami's rain scenes make me think of what he wrote in "Abandoning a Cat" about raindrops representing people: each drop (person) has their own story, fears, etc. but once they merge with others and form a collective, none of it matters. If this is the case here too, I think rain adds to the sense of understanding between Toru and Midori in the moment as they kiss. Both characters are able to lay down their respective worries (Midori's being her family issues and Toru's being Naoko's condition) and become one for a moment (physically through the act of kissing and emotionally through the connection they feel to one another). 

Overall, I don't dislike the movie but I feel the book has more substance to it. However, if the rest of the movie slows down a bit and digs into the character's exchanges a bit more, it could be better redeemed.

Sloane