DVD
REVIEW: NORWEGIAN WOOD
5/14/12
Tokyo, the late 1960s…Students around the world are uniting to overthrow the establishment and Toru Watanabe’s personal life is similarly in tumult. At heart, he is deeply devoted to his first love, Naoko, a beautiful and introspective young woman. But their complex bond has been forged by the tragic death of their best friend years before. Watanabe lives with the influence of death everywhere. That is, until Midori, a girl who is everything that Naoko is not – outgoing, vivacious and extremely self-confident – marches into his life and Watanabe must choose between his past and his future..
Based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Haruki Murakami (IQ84, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle), NORWEGIAN WOOD, directed by Oscar®-nominated Vietnamese filmmaker Tran Anh Hung (The Scent of Green Papaya, Cyclo) releases on standard digital platforms and DVD on May 15. The film features rising stars Kenichi Matsuyama (Death Note, Detroit Metal City) as Toru, Oscar®-nominated Rinko Kikuchi (Babel) as Naoko, and newcomer Kiko Mizuhara as Midori. BAFTA and Grammy®-winning composer Jonny Greenwood (There Will Be Blood), of the band Radiohead, wrote the original music score. NORWEGIAN WOOD was nominated for the Golden Lion Award at the 2010 Venice Film Festival and was an official selection at the 2010 Toronto Film Festival. The film released theatrically by Soda Pictures and Red Flag Releasing in January 2012..
Says Tran Anh Hung: “Norwegian Wood is a fantastic novel that brilliantly portrays the radical inner lives of youth, seeking to define their lives and accepting the consequences as they fall in love and honestly confront their emotions. The story is told in a nostalgic voice, looking back at the past, but I wanted to recreate the raw painfulness of fresh wounds.”.
The upwards of 10 million copies of Norwegian Wood sold worldwide since the novel was published in 1987 is a testament to its popularity. Murakami’s book (published by Random House) is now available in 36 countries and is translated into 33 different languages.
VIDEO:
Widescreen
AUDIO:
English
5.1 Japanese Dolby Digital Surround Sound
Subtitles
English
SPECIAL FEATURES:
The
Making of Norwegian Wood
Venice
Featurette
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