Can a film capture the elusive, melancholic spirit of a beloved literary masterpiece?

Entertainment · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Tran Anh Hung’s 2010 adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s 1987 novel Norwegian Wood attempts to translate the internal, mournful yearning of 1960s Tokyo onto the screen. Featuring a score by Jonny Greenwood, the film explores the fragile boundary between the ghosts of our past and the vibrant possibilities of our future.

Set against the backdrop of 1960s Tokyo, the narrative follows Toru Watanabe, a student grappling with the suicide of his best friend, Kizuki. Toru’s life becomes a delicate balancing act between two women: Naoko, the grieving ex-girlfriend of his late friend who retreats into a remote sanitarium, and Midori, a vivacious, self-confident student who represents a stark, outgoing contrast to Naoko’s internal decay. The film captures this tension as Toru navigates the weight of loss and the pull of new life.

Director Tran Anh Hung faced the daunting challenge of adapting Murakami’s prose, a task that critics viewed with mixed reactions. While some praised the film as a poetic exploration of young love and mortality, others, such as The Daily Telegraph, argued that the adaptation functioned more as a summary than a cohesive narrative. Stephen Holden of The New York Times described the experience as a tortuous reverie, highlighting the film's focus on atmosphere and mood over traditional storytelling structure.

The film’s sonic landscape was crafted by Jonny Greenwood, who employed 1960s home recording equipment and a nylon-strung guitar to evoke an authentic, period-specific sound. This attention to detail reflects the film's broader aesthetic, which relies on rapturous visuals to draw viewers into its world. Despite its mixed critical reception—holding a 73% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 58 out of 100 on Metacritic—the film remains a significant attempt to visualize the profound, often intangible, emotional states that define Murakami’s original work.

Ultimately, the film serves as a meditation on the permanence of loss. As Toru struggles to reconcile his deep feelings for the unreachable Naoko with his attraction to the life-affirming Midori, the audience is forced to confront the same choice: whether to remain tethered to the past or to embrace an uncertain future. It is a cinematic study of how death influences the living and how we choose to define ourselves in the wake of tragedy.

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