SFF 2023 REVIEW: Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
I felt cheated by an experience that capitalised on Murakami’s name and a trailer that hinted at his many stories, but had very little to do with the collection itself.
Image: Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman (courtesy of Sydney Film Festival).
I finished the original Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, a 2006 short story collection by internationally renowned author Haruki Murakami, moments before heading to the cinema; mind boggling tales of surrealist fantasy, the blending of the ordinary and the subconscious brought to the page in a very typical Murakami fashion. When Sydney Film Festival (SFF) announced yet another Murakami feature in its 2023 line-up after the success of Burning (2018) and Drive My Car (2021), I was one of many ready to snatch up a ticket. I have been a long-time fan of Murakami, despite his somewhat difficult-to-grasp novels and demeaning portrayal of women. Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman in film form, however, may have driven me far from film adaptations for good.
Following the parallel narratives of soon to be divorced everyman Komura and mousy banker Katagiri, director Pierre Földes captures the essence of two staple Murakami-esque characters. The themes of self-discovery and loneliness, also key to Murakami’s writing, weave two paradoxically different but similar life stories together. Komura is told that “Living with you is like living with a chunk of air”, while Katagiri is overlooked because of his uninspiring nature. Yet, both characters are tasked with mountains they must overcome by the end of the film, direct challenges to their ways of understanding the world. Divided into seven sequences and interspersed with the quintessential randomness of Murakami narratives, the two protagonists share a lot in common, creating a universal feel to their essence. Solidarity in numbers is a motto I swear by, and Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman definitely captured that. But to earn praise and a screening at SFF, you need to have more exceptional tricks up your sleeve.
Murakami short stories naturally lend themselves to an adaptation like this, given the typical nameless character(s) with universal tendencies. Braiding together multiple short stories into the greater narrative of a few main characters should naturally work. And Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman attempts to do this. And it’s successful in this right. But a few criticisms continued to cloud the universality of these existential tales. Firstly, the extraction of Komura and Katagiri from Murakami’s work comes from short stories outside of the Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman collection. After the Quake (2000) and Super Frog Saves Tokyo (2002), despite being excellent standalone pieces, struggle to make deep thematic connection with the source text. Speaking of which, I could count on less fingers than one hand the amount of explicit (or implicit, for that matter) allusions or inspiration taken from the twenty odd stories in the Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman collection. There was much more of a reliance on stories from After the Quake. In fact, the two protagonist’s come across tension because of a recent Tokyo earthquake, much like their short stories. I felt cheated by an experience that capitalised on Murakami’s name and a trailer that hinted at his many stories, but had very little to do with the collection itself. Even the eponymous short story was very skimmed over, leaving me quite unsatisfied.
Another question that comes to mind is, how much did Murakami have to say about all of this? Not only the lack of a feeling of being in Japan, but the translating of his writings, probably in English first, being further adapted to the silver screen, that seemed to miss the point of the collection as a whole. With British, American, and Dutch accents for its characters, and an animation style devoid of making viewers feel like they’ve been transported to Japan, Földes was unsuccessful in supporting the common claim that Murakami stories are the prototypical Japanese read.
The absolute highlight of the 108 minute feature is undoubtedly the character of Mr Frog. With anger issues and an ego too large to account for, Frog and his over reliance on Neitzche, Conrad, and Hemingway quotes is the new pinnacle of my SFF experience. But a temperamental frog with minimal screen time simply cannot save an entire feature.
As a standalone, Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman may be an interesting film unlike the usual films we see on our screens. But as a text so dependent on an international name, I cannot help but feel disappointed in the twisting of the Murakami-esque. Földes failed to depict a cohesive text truthfully to Murakami’s loyal fan base and newcomers alike.