A disappointing book-to-film adaptation

Unfortunately, I don't think I can recommend this film to anyone. For the people who have also read the book, you'll be disappointed in the execution. And for the people who haven't, you'll be confused with most of the scenes.

It's a film following Toru, a reserved university student who finds himself liking two girls - Naoko, who is dealing with mental health issues; and Midori, a fellow student who is a bit of an enigma. Whilst in the book Toru is very introspective and is able to analyse the relationship dynamics he has with the other characters, film Toru is mostly just a bit contemplative. Clearly, it is very character driven.

Despite that, it seems as if some characters have been toned down a lot. So we end up with a bunch of characters that more or less feel the same in terms of tone, mannerisms, personality, etc. This makes quite a few of the interactions slightly bland at times. Toru, Natsumi, and Midori were probably the most true to the original source material, and were best cast in my opinion.

The problem with this film is that it is very disjointed. From the perspective of someone who has read the book, it feels as of I'm in a literature class and have been given a handful of extracts of the book and I've been made to try and decipher what is happening. It lacks I'm both cohesion, and coherence.

The problem with the lack of structure means that a lot of scenes don't make sense. Since some scenes are cut out to not be too long, we're left with shortened scenes which don't add anything to the plot. For example, a scene between Toru and Midori's father is cut. Instead, we're introduced to him, only for him to stop being mentioned after 3 or so minutes. This leads to a lack of development for many characters, including Naoko's friend, Reika, making their presence seem pointless. The lack of explanation for many scenes invoking certain characters just leads to confusion. And for the scenes included from the book, the dialogue is a carbon copy from the book, not adding anything new, once again, leading to many gaps which are not explained.

And despite leaving a lot out from the book, it is a painfully long film. Since not much happens in the book, the film wasn't able to capture enough of the characters' situations and feelings well enough in order for the film to be the least bit engaging. And mentioned before, some of the characters felt the same.

Although the music fit, it easily could have put me to sleep, especially during the scenes where the characters are having a quiet and slow conversation.

Another thing to note is that it's a particularly quiet film to the point that I can hear the wind and trees more than the characters' voices. However, there are few moments where suddenly, characters are shouting, which caught me off guard since I had turned up the volume quite a bit in order to hear them.

If this was remade today, I do think that it would be a lot better. The only problem is that the author has very sexist views which bleed into his work (including this one), so it would be interesting to see how those aspects (i.e. the male gaze) are improved upon or changed without taking from the overall meaning or plot. Also, as a heads up, Toru has sex with nearly every woman within a 5 mile radius of him, or at least thinks about it. The only exception is Natsumi, who in my opinion, is someone Toru respects and sees almost as a sister in my opinion (at least in the book).

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Beautiful and Tragic; two words I use to describe this film.

What starts as a writer trying to uncover the truth about an incident turns into something much more.

I found the use of light and sound quite important. It was a tool to make us -the audience- focus on certain things characters have said in order to foreshadow what will happen in the future and what will be revealed about the past. It is similar with eye contact and characters watching interactions between other characters. Watching this, you won't realise how complex the story is until the last third. Then, you understand the construction of the story and the choices the characters make.

The acting was also incredible. For Iwata Takanori, it was a step up from his portrayal as Cobra in the HiGH&LOW series and other exile-related works. He really shined in this film. His character was also interesting. He walks with intention and a purpose; he speaks with intention and purpose, making him a more compelling character. I'm not kidding when I say he walks as if he is on a mission (which he totally is). Heck, even his stares are intentional. Saitoh Takumi also outperformed as usual and brought so much to his character as a photographer.

Even though I already loved it after my first watch, I really appreciated the construction of it this time around. It is a film I plan to watch a third, maybe fourth time. But I also wish I could experience watching it for the first time. It is one of a kind.

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