The movie really gave me a chance to set myself in the scene. "Where" and "when" we were almost becoming an afterthought while reading the book, however seeing the settings and the fashion was very fun and changed the way I thought about some aspects of the story. For example, having the protesters in the background of a lot of Toru’s daily life reminded me that the student movement was an important aspect of the story’s historical setting. It never really occurred to me in the book that the protests were a big deal.
It was an interesting decision to leave out Reiko’s story in the movie, in fact, in the movie she seems like a totally insignificant character, while in fact Toru spent a lot of time with her at the institution and writing letters back and forth. Her story took up a big chunk of the book and while it's disturbing to hear, there were many other disturbing aspects of the book highlighted in the movie.
The movie adaptation also gave me a really different perspective on Toru and Naoko’s relationship. While I did read their first sex scene as being odd and the consent being somewhat grayed in the book, this was made even more clear in the movie. Seeing how distraught she was while they were having sex made me look at their whole relationship differently. In the movie, she seemed more unwell the whole time and much less capable of making decisions and engaging in a relationship. After she breaks down multiple times in the movie, I began to judge Toru more and more, he seemed to be latching himself onto a woman who is clearly unwell and would not be capable of ever being with him.
I also didn’t like the way Midori was depicted in the movie. I realize that her character is somewhat of a manic pixie dream girl, but I read her character as being much more of a force and vibrant than her character in the movie. In the movie, she just comes across as overly sweet and almost ditsy?
- Sarah Rosenthal
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