(Eriko Hatsune), who reminds him so much of Naoko. Nagasawa and Hatsumi’s friendship with Watanabe reminds him too much of his past with Kizuki and Naoko, and he doesn’t allow himself to become as close to them as he did with Kizuki and Naoko. All these people enter and exit Watanabe’s life leaving bigger and more painful scars. Now Watanabe has to make a decision between the cheerful Midori and the fragile Naoko, but all turns into a bittersweet tragedy and ends on an unanswered note. Some people may be aware of the author of the novel, the famous Haruki Murakami, who has written other famous titles such as IQ84, Kafka on the Shore, The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, etc. As a reader of the novel, Norwegian Wood is one of the stories that are not like most of Murakami’s works. Norwegian Wood takes you into the heart of a young man who has become an empty, disconnected shell upon this world. The bonds he makes with people are easily cut by the hands of fate, and each moment feels like one beautifully sad elegy after the other. As a film in general, director Tran Anh Hung seems to have failed to execute this wonderfully written ro-
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