I've never watched any cinematic adaptations of Haruki Murakami's work, and I probably never will—the guy's writing is so fucking good, and the appeal of his writing is so strongly tied to the words he uses (or, technically, the words he uses as translated by Alfred Birnbaum, Jay Rubin, and Philip Gabriel), that it goes without saying it'd be disappointing to experience his stories in any other medium.
That said, hey, the new movie version of Norwegian Wood doesn't look half bad! Then again, maybe that's because this preview is all of 30 seconds long, features only one line of dialogue (that's in Japanese, natch), and is soundtracked with, well, "Norwegian Wood."
Says Galleycat,
The film will debut at the Venice Film Festival, according The Hollywood Reporter. Here's more: "The producers recently got permission, after protracted negotiations, to use the Beatles' song of its title for the score... [It is] directed by Tran Anh Hung, a Vietnamese-born Frenchman."As we reported in March, Radiohead guitarist and keyboardist Jonny Greenwood is writing the score for a film adaptation. The film is set for a December release in Japan.
Hey, Jonny Greenwood! Nice! Bodysong, There Will Be Blood, and now something Murakami-related? Not bad.
Also, little-known fact: Run Fatboy Run was a loose adaptation of What I Talk About When I Talk About Running.