Watching Norwegian Wood felt more like listening to an emo ballad than watching a film. The movie itself is filled with death, grief and mourning. Even with times that the atmosphere is light and lively, the air is heavy with emotional pain. And as a viewer, you breathe in that air as you watch. Now, I haven't read the book so I'm judging merely from what I gathered from the film. But I've done some research after I finished watching and the film already failed to establish an important aspect: this is Toru's recollection and remembering of the past from present day Germany. Leaving that detail out in the beginning fails to tie in and give connection to the film's ending (which confused me a lot). I haven't read any of Murakami's book but from what I've gathered, his works are difficult to adapt because of the nature of his writing: poetic and full of prose. Now, if you have such a difficult source material to adapt, to me, it it necessary to ensure that everything ties together. Without knowing that this is a recollection, I would've not get the other symbolism or metaphor in the story itself. The ending itself is already difficult to show visually (the reflection of "Where am I?" by Toru) isn't justified enough. As I've gathered, the ending is open-ended and the film does show that but the open-ending nature of it ties back to the fact that he's recalling it now that he's in his 30s (despite the voice-overs). This chosen past contrasts with the heavy air of death and suicide and grief that dominates the film and that I believe is important to break out of the cycle of wanting to be saved from yourself. I haven't read the book so I don't know the reason but I feel like the reason behind Kizuki's death is important especially since Naoko and him are madly in love. There needs to be justification even in death. Why would he just leave the girl he loves and the best friend? Now, these two are forced into this cycle together. I feel like Hung is trying to do too much here that the characters seem to be in generals rather than specifics. Toru's character despite the narration seems very detached from the audience and focused more on observations from others rather than his itself. This is both a strength and a weakness. It shows Toru's character as not wanting to open up and present himself entirely to others by creating distance but this also shows the lack of development on his part. Of course there are some exceptions. Some scenes where we were able to see his vulnerability. Also, because of this detachment, the film's direction seems aimless and I'm not quite sure what goal the story or the characters are trying to head on to. I do, however, love the contrasts in this film especially with Naoko and Midori. I might be bias when it comes to Kiko Mizuhara (she's my favorite model) but I think she's incredible in the mood. She has this mysterious aura but lively and simple yet still sexually alluring. And I love how that contrasts with the disturbed and troubled Naoko played incredibly well by Rinko Kuchiki. I think that Kuchiki is able to really portray the grief that Naoko has outshining Toru played by Ken'ichi Matsuyama. I don't want to touch to much on the sex but I guess I have to comment on it since it's very prominent in the film. Because of that I believe that it's not just there for the sake of being there, it's there because it's suppose to be there and it was a conscious choice. To me, seeing this film with a lot of sex enforces the struggle of the characters not only with the heightening of their sexuality but the increasing amount of grief that they have to go through. In so many ways, it's grief that brought Naoko and Toru together. But the sex here also seems like a thread that bounds these character together, which is not really strong in the film. Certainly, it plays an important part in the fate of the characters. But all in all, the film has beautiful cinematography and has an indie feel to it with the long cuts. There is still some poetic feel given with the cinematography and the narration (voice-over) helps with the eerie silence. It also has a great soundtrack.