Movies by Haruki Murakami: 7 great adaptations of the Japanese writer's works

"Drive My Car" /ドライブ・マイ・カー

Drama | 3.98 out of 5 on MyShows | 2021

Director Yusuke Kafuku is invited to stage an experimental play based on Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya" at the Hiroshima Theater Festival. But Yusuke is not allowed to drive himself to work and is assigned a driver, a taciturn girl named Misaki. Gradually, the two become close, and Yusuke's cherry-red car becomes a safe haven where they learn to cope with a painful past and loneliness.

"Drive My Car" is a thoughtful and sensitive movie about creativity, silence, guilt and loneliness. Director Ryusuke Hamaguchi turned a short story by Haruki Murakami from the collection "Men Without Women" into a leisurely three-hour movie, which, despite the timing, looks in one breath. Hamaguchi's work was also appreciated by critics: the picture was included in many lists of the best films of the year, gave the prize for best screenplay in Cannes and even an Oscar.

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"Burning" / 버닝

Detective, drama, thriller | 3.54 out of 5 on MyShows | 2018

A young writer, Lee Jong-su, meets his childhood friend Hae-mi in the big city. Jong-su agrees to look after her cat when the girl goes to Africa. But Hae-mi doesn't return alone, but with a rich man named Ben. They begin spending time together, and soon Ben confesses to Jong-su an unusual hobby that changes the trajectories of their lives forever.

Lee Chang-dong's movie, based on Murakami's 1984 short story "The Elephant Vanishes", was praised by seemingly all critics. The picture appeared on several Best Films of the Decade lists at once, and Korean Screen, a website that polled more than 150 film critics, named "Burning" the best Korean film of all time.

"It's hard to explain why, but I think of this movie often, even though I've only seen it once and quite a while ago. The visual style, story, and acting together create a unique combination. The ending leaves a lot of questions, but it's also not annoying like "mystery" movies usually are. I didn't find any ready explanations on the internet, so you're left to think about the meaning yourself. All in all, an interesting movie", — MrRiO.

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"Hanalei Bay" / ハナレイ・ベイ

Drama | 2018

Single mother Sachi learns that her 18-year-old son Takashi has died in Hanalei Bay in Hawaii. He was surfing when he was attacked by a shark. Takashi had to have his leg amputated, but he still didn't survive.

Ten years later, Sachi comes to Hawaii for the anniversary of her son's death. She meets two young men who tell her about a one-legged surfer from Japan.

Although Murakami has been adapted quite often in recent years, bringing his work to the big screen is not easy, largely because of the abstract imagery that the author is so fond of. Nevertheless, director and screenwriter Daishi Matsunaga has succeeded. He has made a sensual and sincere movie about a mother trying to cope with loss and understand who her son was.

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"Hear the Wind Sing" / 風の歌を聴け

Drama | 1981

The screen adaptation of Haruki Murakami's debut novel is about a student who comes to his hometown for the summer. Here he listens to music, drinks beer, socializes with different girls, and hangs out in a bar with a friend who is going to become a writer. They spend a leisurely summer exploring themselves and the world around them.

Director Kazuki Ōmori — the author of many films about Godzilla — considered "Hear the Wind Sing" one of his best works. Murakami himself evaluated the picture ambiguously, considering that not all the moves of the director succeeded. "But what I appreciate in this movie is that Ōmori shot what he wanted, in a youthful and free way, without thinking about the future", — Murakami wrote about the movie.

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"Tony Takitani"/トニー滝谷

Drama | 4.75 out of 5 on MyShows | 2004

Tony Takitani has been lonely since he was a child. He didn't understand other children and even shunned them, devoting himself to drawing. Growing up, Tony became a technical illustrator, but never learned to express or even recognize his own emotions. That all changes when he meets a girl named Eiko. Tony falls in love with her, and soon they are married. However, Eiko has one flaw: she adores clothes and high fashion. Soon this passion leads to tragedy.

The movie "Tony Takitani" is based on Murakami's short story of the same name. Director Jun Ichikawa perfectly managed to transfer to the big screen the feeling of isolation of a man in a megacity, also emphasizing the fatalism and resignation to circumstances inherent in the works of the writer. The result is a deceptively simple movie about loneliness, its origins and consequences.

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"Norwegian Wood"/ノルウェイの森

Drama, romance | 3.33 out of 5 on MyShows | 2010

Toru Watanabe hears the song Norwegian Wood by The Beatles and remembers his life in the 1960s, when his friend Kizuki commits suicide and Toru himself becomes close to his girlfriend Naoko. As they both try to cope with grief and loss in different ways, Toru meets an outgoing and cheerful girl named Midori.

The screen adaptation of one of Murakami's most famous novels debuted at the Venice Film Festival. Tran Anh Hung's movie was met with restraint, with critics writing that "Norwegian Wood" felt more like a summary of Murakami's book than a standalone work.

"Unsuccessful adaptation of a good book. The plot is shown in scraps, the frames are sharply changing one after another, because of which you do not even have time to understand what to what. Completely removed any description of the characters - in the movie they are absolutely flat and cardboard, but left a lot of intimate conversations and scenes, making the characters as if obsessed with it", — Santerelle.

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"Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman" / Saules aveugles, femme endormie

Drama, fiction | 2022

A giant talking frog, a lost cat, and a tsunami help a bank clerk, his wife and a crazy accountant save Tokyo from an earthquake and find the meaning of life.

French director Pierre Földes has adapted several works from different Murakami collections and combined them into an animated anthology. The animated film follows the lives of several characters, each with their own unique story and problems.

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