Very excited about the pending release of his three volume novel 1Q84, which is due, in English translation, in October of this year.
Tiding us over until then, this month saw the release of a new film version of one of his most popular novels, Norwegian Wood, by the Vietnamese director Anh Hung Tran.
Obviously any transfer between media insists on compromises and changes to the source material, and I think this adaptation is commendable for its depiction of a mood, a moment, a memory. The acting is all superb, as is the soundtrack, provided by the impossibly cool Jonny Greenwood - as well as an appearance by the eponymous Beatles song.
I think what I loved the most were the subtle references to life in Tokyo at the time - several scenes featured the protagonist walking through and around Waseda University during the enormous student revolts in Tokyo in the late 1960s. This ex-Waseda student can happily report, too, that scenes really were filmed in the drama department of Waseda!!!
Pleasing accuracies aside, however, the film is rather hard work. Its rhythms are hypnotic and disruptive in equal measure, and its emphasis is substantially different from the book, as are some of the characters. But I didn't go to the cinema to 'see' the book, so that's alright.
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