Based on Haruki Murakami‘s first novel and the first in the “Trilogy of the Rat”, a book that the author, embarrassed by it, kept its English translation in obscurity for many years, “Hear the Wind Sing” is essentially an experimentation on how Murakami’s style, which is not exactly made for film material, could translate on the big screen. Let us take things from the beginning though.
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We are first introduced to the protagonist-narrator, a student at a university in Tokyo who has decided he wants to become a writer, but also finds the task terribly painful. As it is summer, he has returned to his seaside hometown in Niigata for vacation, with the suicide of a girl he dated at the university still lingering in his mind. During his time there, he frequents the bar of J, the Chinese owner who is always eager to talk with him, and hangs around with Rat, a rather rich young man who seems lost in life, and spends all his time with the narrator drinking, with both frequently ending up dead drunk.
One day, the Narrator comes across a girl lying on the floor in the washroom of the bar and carries her home. Initially, the girl, who actually has four fingers on one hand, thinks he has taken advantage of her. After a few unexpected meetings however, mostly instigated by the Narrator and including the record shop she works at, she warms up to him and the two start dating. She seems to also have a burden in her mind, but the protagonist never lets her speak about it, perhaps fearing that then he will have to talk about his own. Rat, who also seems unwilling to explain an event with a girl he was to introduce to the narrator, eventually starts reading books and makes an important decision about his life, to shoot a movie.
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Kazuki Omori shoots a film that stays quite close to the letter of the book in terms of narrative, while trying to capture its essence through an approach that could easily be described as avant-garde and experimental, in a way that makes it quite evident that this is an adaptation of a book. The extensive narration by the protagonist is the most dominant element in that regard, but the POV shots, the intertitles, which also point to the silent movies of the past, the film-within-a-film, the extensive use of jazz, the documentary-like footage from the student movement, and the repeating bedroom scenes, occasionally in black-and-white (and reminiscent of Lennon and Ono’s similar setting) are also here, highlighting the effort we mentioned in the prologue.
In that regard, the combination of Kenji Watanabe’s cinematography and Eiko Yoshida’s editing is the most interesting part of the movie, with the succession of different cinematic elements being quite entertaining to watch. At the same time though, the result is not particularly coherent or compact, with the movie emerging more as a collage of different ideas than a concise one, in an approach that becomes somewhat tiring after a point.
Regarding the narrative, that the book is not about something in particular, instead focusing on a number of unique and amusing characters, does not help the movie either, which again follows the ‘collage’ path in the unfolding of a rather thin story.
Individually, though, and as with the production values, there are a number of elements here that are quite intriguing. The cockiness of the protagonist, which can also be found in the book, is amusing to witness in his relationship with the people around him and particularly women, even if he tastes his own medicine from Woman. Kaoru Kobayashi in the protagonist role embodies this sense and the hidden regret the Narrator exhibits convincingly. Kimi Shingyoji as the Woman is quite good in the way she transforms, while she embodies the characteristic woman of Murakami novels to the t. The Rat is a very interesting character too, who finds himself without a particular purpose in life, struggling to find one, while the way he cherishes his friendship with the protagonist, in somewhat subtle fashion, also works well for the movie. Koichi Makigami in the role gives probably the most memorable performance in the whole movie, although the acting is not exactly an aspect that stands out here.
“Hear the Wind Sing”, just like the book, is nothing special. At the same time though, there is neither anything particularly negative about it, and at 98 minutes, it definitely deserves a watch, if only as an early experimentation on adapting Murakami novels of the big screen.
