Realism always makes me cringe. It's something about the complete honesty of the characters and depictions of human actions put so clearly into words. Films like Kids (1995) and Mid90s (2018) come to mind when I think of adolescent realism. Both these films and Murakami's Norwegian Wood have themes of coming of age, sex, friendship, and trauma. The characters don't shy away from foul language or nasty images; Midori's dialogue in particular was especially vulgar and her character was just as funny as she was cringy. I loved how she pointed out Watanabe's peculiar way of talking but she was just as weird in her imagination. Her bluntness was completely different from the closed-off Naoko. Both girls were exposed to death at early ages; I wonder if the manner of death was what set the girls apart. Midori witnessed slow, unwilling death while Naoko witnessed abrupt suicide. Perhaps this is why these girls navigate life so differently. Midori understands the value of life because her family members held on so strongly to it while Naoko's sister and Kizuki couldn't find a reason to go on. Maybe taking care of her dying family members grounded Midori in realism while Naoko fell further into hopelessness.
--Viv Johnson
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