Pierre Földes' debut feature is an animated adaptation of a several short stories by celebrated Japanese author Haruki Murakami.
With the cinematic stock of Japanese author Haruki Murakami at an all-time high following the Oscar glory enjoyed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car, we now have another adaptation of a volume of short stories by the painter and filmmaker Pierre Földes.
The eccentric, laconic Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman is a pastel-hued animated patchwork of vignettes which draw together the ultra mundane art of the meandering one-on-one conversation with various fantastical flights of fantasy born out of dreams and interior projection. The story takes place in various Japanese locales, as its various lost soul characters ponder their social and sexual hang-ups in anticipation of a cataclysmic earthquake.
A portly salaryman receives a visitation from a talking frog heading to battle with a giant work; the man’s colleague has been dumped by his wife and heads on a journey of self reflection; a woman tells rum sexual escapade in the great outdoors. The film does well to capture the probing literary spirit of Murakami, even if it doesn’t quite manage to channel the intense emotional aspect of its work, instead coming across as dryly ironic and detached. Fans of Richard Linklater’s Rotoscoped dream diary, Waking Life, will be in for a field day, though.
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Published 28 Mar 2023
The Murakami cinematic spin-off train just keeps on rolling.
A slight but intriguing exploration of anxiety and erotic fantasy.
Its themes are a little too softly-spoken to leave a major impact, but an impressively-mounted project.
This captivating, emotionally eloquent Haruki Murakami adaptation is one of 2021’s must-see movies.
Lee Chang-dong’s sly take on a Haruki Murakami short story is a slow-burn mystery touched by genius.
By Elena Lazic
Tony Takitani also explores themes of isolation, obsession and the pervasive influence of capitalism.
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