This Week in the Mercury
Monday, August 4, 2008
Books / Film Norwegian Wood and a Constant Fear of Disappointment.
Posted by Erik Henriksen on Mon, Aug 4, 2008 at 4:12 PM
Variety has word that Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood--which is a really fucking fantastic book, as are pretty much all of his books--is slated to get the feature film treatment.
TOKYO--French-Vietnamese helmer Tran Anh Hung plans to make a pic based on Norwegian Wood, the bestselling novel by Japanese scribe Haruki Murakami.Fuji TV and Asmik Ace will jointly produce the Japanese-language pic. The cast has yet to be decided, but shooting is skedded to start in February in Japan for a 2010 release....
Published in Japan in 1987, Norwegian Wood depicts the loves and losses of a sensitive college boy in the 1960s who is more interested in American literature than in the era's political upheavals. The novel sold 8.7 million copies in Japan and has been translated into 36 languages.
Moving past the fact that Variety insists on using words like "skedded" instead of "scheduled," Murakami's one of my favorite authors. The only other piece of his writing that's been adapted into a movie is Tony Takitani, which I avoided out of fear of disappointment. I might have to skip this one, too, just 'cause I'm scared they'll fuck it all up, and just like I'll probably skip Jim Halpert's Brief Interviews with Hideous Men. If I can't even bring myself to face the changes wrought in Wanted, I'm really not sure how well I'd handle cinematic adaptations of Murakami and David Foster Wallace. I live in constant fear.
Via Powell's.
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It's John Krasinski, not Jim Halpert.
If you're going to make uninformed opinions, at least take the time to check imdb.com so you can slag the correct person, k?
Hee hee. That is easily the best comment of the day. The rest of you are obviously trying too hard.
The trick is to never go into a movie adaptation expecting it to be anything but remotely based on the book. See also: the Night Watch series.
Murakami is my favorite author. He's totally brilliant. Although, Norwegian Wood is only my second favorite book of his. I like The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle the best, although Norwegian Wood seems more filmable.
Oh, man, I love Norwegian Wood soooo much, but yeah, if they are going to adapt one of his novels, it should be that one. I think it's the least fuck-up-able. I'm also glad to hear they are filming it in Japanese. I think that is a good sign.
I would want to see an adaptation of something by David Foster Wallace, just to see how they deal with all his lame-ass footnotes.
If they film it in Japan, with japanese directors and actors and producers, and basically keep any western hands off of it, it might be okay. but every time western minds get hold of japanese storylines they ruin them. See "The Eye", and "The Ring" and I don't even know how many others....
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