Norwegian Wood

“The performances of the young cast attain an affecting blend of reticence and hope, but it’s Tran’s fastidious technique that nudges the film into the realms of greatness.”~David Jenkins, Time Out

Aroview: Yearning, visually rapturous adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s widely read novel, about a devoted college student in the 60s whose relationships are burdened by the suicide of a past lover.

Sensual in both sound and image, Tran’s trained eye envelops the viewer in a feeling for the era and the high emotion of its anguished protagonists – a boon for anyone receptive to poetic cinema and rich, melancholic atmosphere. Less palatable is the character drama at the heart of the film, an at once superficial and insufferable portrait of tortured young love that nonetheless will speak to those of the right generation, or indeed, the right mood.

NZ International Film Festival 2011

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