Despite Hung's obvious gifts as a filmmaker, he has ditched this raw immediacy in favor of a drifty, overstuffed, ultimately dull melodrama.
Norwegian Wood(ノルウェイの森)
✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
Japan · 2010
2h 13m
Director Tran Anh Hung
Starring Kenichi Matsuyama, Rinko Kikuchi, Kiko Mizuhara, Reika Kirishima
Genre Drama, Romance
Add to Watchlist
Please login to add films to your watchlist.
In 1960s Japan, high school student Toru Watanabe loses his only friend Kizuki after he commits suicide. Toru, now looking for a new life, enters a university in Tokyo. By chance, he meets Kizuki's ex-girlfriend, Naoko, in the university. However, as Toru and Naoko grow even closer, Naoko's sense of loss also grows.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
As a chronicle of grief and passion, however, the film is perilously close to being an exercise in tactile but touchy-feely passive-aggression.
New York Daily News by Elizabeth Weitzman
Fans of the book may resist the efforts of director Tran Anh Hung ("The Scent of Green Papaya"), simply because it would be impossible to capture the essence of Murakami's prose. But this exquisitely filmed, often haunting tragedy is worth taking on its own terms.
Admittedly lovely and heartfelt, Norwegian Wood is also hollow.
Lovely but listless.
Tran's visual precision is betrayed by his jumbled script, which fails to impose a cinematic structure on the source material.
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
The film has the loose narrative structure of a quasi-poetic personal journal that is more a series of reflections than a cohesive story.
Users who liked this film also liked
Fellini's Satyricon
A series of disjointed mythical tales set in first century Rome.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Italy, France • 1969
- Director Federico Fellini
- Cast Martin Potter, Hiram Keller, Max Born, Salvo Randone, Mario Romagnoli, Magali Noël
- Genre Drama, Fantasy
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Shogun Assassin
The legend of lone wolf and cub continues!
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1980
- Director Robert Houston, Kenji Misumi
- Cast Tomisaburō Wakayama, Akihiro Tomikawa, Kayo Matsuo, Minoru Oki, Shin Kishida, Shogen Nitta
- Genre Action
- Available on Criterion Channel, Amazon Video
Tony Takitani
(トニー滝谷)
A lonely illustrator falls in love with a woman secretly addicted to buying clothes, but is that all she's hiding?
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 2005
- Director Jun Ichikawa
- Cast Issei Ogata, Rie Miyazawa, Hidetoshi Nishijima, Takahumi Shinohara, Miho Fujima
- Genre Drama
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube, Tubi TV
A Millionaire's First Love
(백만장자의 첫사랑)
Kang Jae-Kyung is set to inherit his grandfather's fortune on the day he turns 18, but on one bizarre condition.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Korea • 2006
- Director Kim Tae-gyun
- Cast Lee Yeon-hee, Hyun Bin, Lim Ju-hwan, Jeong Wook, Lee Young-hoo
- Genre Drama, Romance
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Romantics Anonymous
(Les émotifs anonymes)
René and Angélique are chocolatiers cut from the same cloth. But does that spell disaster or is it a recipe for love?
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Belgium • 2010
- Director Jean-Pierre Améris
- Cast Isabelle Carré, Benoît Poelvoorde, Lorella Cravotta, Lise Lamétrie, Swann Arlaud, Pierre Niney
- Genre Drama, Comedy, Romance
- Available on Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Freevee, Plex Channel
Happiness
(Le Bonheur)
A young carpenter strikes up an affair with a postal worker despite his happy marriage.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 1965
- Director Agnès Varda
- Cast Jean-Claude Drouot, Claire Drouot, Olivier Drouot, Sandrine Drouot, Marie-France Boyer, Marcelle Faure-Bertin
- Genre Drama, Romance
- Available on Criterion Channel, Max Amazon Channel
Eternal Moment
(将爱情进行到底)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- China • 2011
- Director Zhang Yibai
- Cast Li Yapeng, Xu Jinglei, Xuebing Wang, Chapman To, Zhao Wei, Feng Li
- Genre Romance, Drama
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Absent
(Ausente)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Argentina • 2011
- Director Marco Berger
- Cast Carlos Echevarría, Javier De Pietro, Antonella Costa, Alejandro Barbero, Rocío Pavón, Luis Mango
- Genre Drama, Thriller
- Available on No streaming locations found.
An Adolescent
(少女〜AN ADOLESCENT)
A policeman has an affair with the fifteen-year-old daughter of a former lover.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 2001
- Director Eiji Okuda
- Cast Mayu Ozawa, Eiji Okuda, Mari Natsuki, Hideo Murota, Hideo Higashikokubaru, Nasubi
- Genre Drama
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Heaven's Bookstore
(天国の本屋~恋火)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 2004
- Director Tetsuo Shinohara
- Cast Yûko Takeuchi, Tetsuji Tamayama, Karina, Hirofumi Arai, Koji Ohkura, Yôichirô Saitô
- Genre Drama, Romance
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Tokyo Park
(東京公園)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 2011
- Director Shinji Aoyama
- Cast Haruma Miura, Nana Eikura, Manami Konishi, Haruka Igawa, Yo Takahashi, Shota Sometani
- Genre Drama
- Available on No streaming locations found.
HK: Forbidden Super Hero
(HK/変態仮面)
Panty Bless You.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 2013
- Director Yuichi Fukuda
- Cast Ryohei Suzuki, Fumika Shimizu, Tsuyoshi Muro, Ken Yasuda, Nana Katase, Shunsuke Daitoh
- Genre Action, Comedy
- Available on No streaming locations found.
The Liar and His Lover
(カノジョは嘘を愛しすぎてる)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 2013
- Director Norihiro Koizumi
- Cast Takeru Satoh, Sakurako Ohara, Shohei Miura, Masataka Kubota, Kouki Mizuta, Kodai Asaka
- Genre Music, Romance
- Available on No streaming locations found.
The Wonders
(Le meraviglie)
Gelsomina’s family works according to some special rules.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Italy, Switzerland, Germany • 2014
- Director Alice Rohrwacher
- Cast Maria Alexandra Lungu, Alba Rohrwacher, Sam Louwyck, Sabine Timoteo, Agnese Graziani, Monica Bellucci
- Genre Drama
- Available on OVID, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, YouTube, Kanopy, Hoopla
A Girl at My Door
(도희야)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Korea • 2014
- Director July Jung
- Cast Bae Doona, Kim Sae-ron, Song Sae-byuk, Kim Jin-goo, Son Jong-hak, Na Jong-min
- Genre Drama
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Disorder
(Maryland)
An ex-soldier with PTSD is hired to protect the wife and child of a wealthy Lebanese businessman while he's out of town.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Belgium • 2015
- Director Alice Winocour
- Cast Matthias Schoenaerts, Diane Kruger, Paul Hamy, Victor Pontecorvo, Zaïd Errougui-Demonsant, Percy Kemp
- Genre Drama, Thriller
- Available on AMC+ Amazon Channel, IFC Films Unlimited Apple TV Channel, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube, Kanopy
Fatal Intuition
(그놈이다)
No evidence. No trace. But the instinct points the killer.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Korea • 2015
- Director Yun Jun-hyung
- Cast Joo Won, Yoo Hae-jin, Lee You-young, Ryu Hye-young, Min Sung-wook, Seo Hyun-woo
- Genre Thriller
- Available on Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Amazon Video, AsianCrush, Freevee, Cineverse
Cutie Honey: Tears
(Cutie Honey Tears)
- ✭ ✭
- Japan • 2016
- Director Takeshi Asai, Ryo Higuchi
- Cast Mariya Nishiuchi, Takahiro Miura, Nicole Ishida, Sousuke Takaoka, Tasuku Nagase, Ren Imai
- Genre Action
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Real Girl
(3D彼女 リアルガール)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 2018
- Director Tsutomu Hanabusa
- Cast Ayami Nakajo, Hayato Sano, Hiroya Shimizu, Yuri Tsunematsu, Moka Kamishiraishi, Takahiro Miura
- Genre Romance
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube