a film by Tràn Anh Hung
Tokyo in the late 1960s. Students around the world are uniting to overthrow the establishment and Toru Watanabe is a quiet and serious young college student whose personal life is in tumult. After losing his best friend Kizuki when he inexplicably commits suicide, Watanabe becomes uncertain as to how he should view life, and as he looks for a new life, he enters university in Tokyo. By chance, during a walk in a park he meets Kizuki's ex-girlfriend Naoko and they grow close since they both share the same loss. At heart, Watanabe is deeply devoted to Naoko, a beautiful and introspective young woman. But as they grow even closer, their complex bond having been forged by the tragic death of their best friend, Naoko's sense of loss also grows.
After Naoko's 20th birthday, which she shares with Watanabe, she withdraws from the world and leaves for a sanatorium in the remote forested hills near Kyoto to regain some emotional stability. Watanabe is devastated by the situation, since 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 – outgoing, vivacious, supremely self-confident – who is everything that Naoko is not. Like Watanabe, Midori is in love with another, yet as they flirt with each other they are drawn together. As Naoko becomes increasingly unreachable, so Midori becomes increasingly available, but as Naoko's state of mind worsens Watanabe finds himself falling deeper in love with her. Torn between the two women in his life, Watanabe must also choose between his past and his future.
Adapted from Haruki Murakami's bestselling novel, published in 1987 and since translated into 33 languages, Norwegian Wood is a sensitive and deeply moving story of adolescent love, loss, heartbreak and mental illness, set in a time of global instability. A tender, visually exquisite film with beautiful cinematography and superb performances, featuring soundtrack music by Can and score by Jonny Greenwood.
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