Adapted by Tran Anh Hung from the popular novel of the same name by Haruki Murakami, I thought Tran was the perfect director for this movie.
For the first time, I'm reading the book and three-quarters in, I decided that I will let the movie finish off the story for me rather than the book (which I will still continue to finish).
One bad thing about what I'm doing is that I'm comparing every scene to the book and had difficulty separating the movie from what I already know.
But after the three-quarters as the movie caught up with where I left the book off, I could confirm that the adaptation wasn't as strong. If without reading the book, some scenes felt quite random and it's up to the audience to piece things together or come up with our own interpretation as to what's going on.
As for the story, it was a ridiculously sad one. For me, it was about depression and finding that will to live.
As a movie, Tran's poignant direction totally captured the mood of the book. There were some beautiful shots, and some dialogue jumped off the pages of the book. Sometimes it felt suitable, other times it felt too much for just one person to keep on talking.
The dialogue wasn't particularly strong. A lot of times Tran used monologues to drive the movie forward or as expositions so that we could understand what's going on.
Ken'ichi Matsuyama portrayed the main character well enough in this version, though I recognised he's not exactly as who I had in mind while reading the novel. For once, Rinko Kikuchi made sense in a movie. Her work in 47 Ronin and Pacific Rim was one of the reasons why I disliked those movies. But in her mother tongue, her acting here made sense.
I also very much liked how the movie ended. And I'm now very curious how Murakami ended his original version.
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