Review of Norwegian Wood (2010) by Peter O — 30 Jan 2012

It's 1967. Watanabe, Kizuki, and Naoko are all around 17 years old. Watanabe and Kizuki are best friends and Naoko is Kizuki's girlfriend, so the three of them spend a lot of time together. That is, until Kizuki commits suicide for no apparent reason.

Watanabe goes away to college in Tokyo. A couple of years later, Naoko shows up and they start hanging out. All goes well until the night of Naoko's 20th birthday when she and Watanabe sleep together and she abruptly flees the city. She eventually writes to tell him that she's living at some sort of mental health retreat in the country. By this time Watanabe is not only in love with her, but he also feels a responsibility to care for her, so he heads off for his first of several visits.

Meanwhile, back in Tokyo, Watanabe keeps busy by working part time in a factory and prowling for chicks with his lothario-esque roommate, virtually ignoring the mobs of angry student protesters that appear in just about every outdoor scene. I have no idea what they're protesting. The Vietnam War, I assume?

Then he meets Midori. Midori is kind of the opposite of Naoko: happy, flirty, fun, outgoing. She also has a boyfriend, though this doesn't stop her from hitting on Watanabe every chance she gets. When she asks about his relationship with Naoko, all he can say is "it's complicated". That it is.

Though Naoko is growing increasingly troubled, Watanabe remains devoted. She cries at least seven times during the film (yes, I was counting) and regularly obsesses about an issue which I would assume could be easily be solved by a quick visit to a gynecologist's office.

Norwegian Wood is a very long film - 133 minutes - and was made even longer at the showing I attended by two technical difficulty "intermissions". (Coincidentally, this is the second movie I went to in a row that had projection issues; the first one never even got past the opening advertisements.) It's also made longer by a lot of lingering shots of rolling hills, roiling seas, rustling grass. The large man seated two rows behind me snored loudly throughout the entire second half so any sort of mood these were meant to convey was immediately drowned out.

This is the sort of film that's much easier to admire than it is to like. With three suicides by the time it's over, one might say it's a bit of a downer. But it's also somewhat difficult to relate to or to put into any sort of cultural perspective. These kids don't look like what I think of as hippies, but the sexual revolution seems to be going strong...or perhaps Watanabe is just irresistible to women.

In fairness to the film, between the technical difficulties and the snoring, it was hard to really get into it. On the other hand, seeing as how I perceived the breaks more as respites rather than interruptions, I don't think I was really that into it in the first place.