The movie captures the beautifully scenes described in the book, and somewhat also "the mood", but fails developing the characters, i.e. the protagonist can be seen as dull, specially if you haven't readed the book. Also it fails to show enough of Midori's cheerfulness and somewhat sweetness, and also showing the friendship (maybe shallow but still friendship) from the main character with Nagasawa.
The soundtrack backs up the movie, and the photography is quite beautiful. Also, Rinko Kikuchi's performance is quite good, since the character is difficult to interpret.
The weak point (as you can see) is the adaptation. Is not bad, but it has significant fails, specially developing the characters, their relationships, and making the spectator to identify or at least care about the characters (but the book manages this issues amazingly) The big fail is that the movie doesn't talk almost nothing about Reiko (forgeting about the friendship with Watanabe, and making her last scene strange) Finally, and also related with Reiko, the movie doesn't shows why it's called "Norwegian Wood" (the book starts with Watanabe listening this song in the airport, and remembering the story) Still, a good very movie and enjoyable, but not all the viewers that didn't read the book will like it, and it can make a lot of Murakami's fans disappointed.
The soundtrack backs up the movie, and the photography is quite beautiful. Also, Rinko Kikuchi's performance is quite good, since the character is difficult to interpret.
The weak point (as you can see) is the adaptation. Is not bad, but it has significant fails, specially developing the characters, their relationships, and making the spectator to identify or at least care about the characters (but the book manages this issues amazingly) The big fail is that the movie doesn't talk almost nothing about Reiko (forgeting about the friendship with Watanabe, and making her last scene strange) Finally, and also related with Reiko, the movie doesn't shows why it's called "Norwegian Wood" (the book starts with Watanabe listening this song in the airport, and remembering the story) Still, a good very movie and enjoyable, but not all the viewers that didn't read the book will like it, and it can make a lot of Murakami's fans disappointed.