Review of Norwegian Wood (2010) by Walter M — 05 May 2013
In "Norwegian Wood," Toru(Ken'ichi Matsuyama) is best friends with Kizuki(Kengo Kora). With Kizuki and Naoko(Rinko Kikuchi) being well-nigh inseparable, Toru does not mind playing third wheel to them. After Kikuchi's suicide, Toru migrates to the side of Nagasawa(Tetsuji Tamayama), a ladies' man, in search of more knowledge about the opposite sex.
Enter Midori(Kiko Mizuhara).
On the one hand, "Norwegian Wood" could be considered a thoughtful meditation on young people's first encounter with death, finding out the hard way that there is no way to compete with the dead. On the other hand, the characters talk a great game when it comes to sex but are less able when it comes down to doing the deed or falling in love for that matter. Just as Toru uses books to keep the chaos of the outside world at bay, others use recent trauma to keep emotions at bay. Sadly, this movie is simply too long for such an intimate story, especially with its many digressions that help to slow the pace to a crawl in places.
This review of Norwegian Wood (2010) was written by Walter M on 05 May 2013.
Norwegian Wood has generally received positive reviews.
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