Haruki Murakami is arguably the most famous contemporary Japanese author who has multiple bestsellers not just in Japan but all over the world. His works have been translated into 50 different languages and he has won many awards at home and abroad. His work is characterized by highly imaginative magical realism with loneliness and social isolation being commonly recurring themes in his works. Although Murakami’s books are well-known all over the world, the same cannot be said about the film adaptations of his works – even the loyal fans are unaware of their existence. Murakami’s eccentric characters, socially relevant themes, and the uniqueness of Murakami’s worlds where the lines between fantasy and reality are constantly blurred are all great ingredients for intriguing movies and hence the film adaptations are worth watching whether you are a Murakami fan or not. Following are film adaptations of Haruki Murakami’s works that you should not miss out on.

Hear the Song of the Wind (1981)

Director: Kazuki Ōmori

An absolute must-watch for Murakami fans, this movie is based on his very first novel of the same name released in 1979, just two years before the release of the movie.

In the movie, the narrator (Kaoru Kobayashi) who is the main protagonist of the story is a student at a university in Tokyo who travels back to his hometown in Kobe for the summer vacation. The movie happens over this nostalgic summer of 1970, where he frequents a local bar with his best friend named Nezumi (translated as Rat), drinks lots of cheap beer, has philosophical conversations, and meets a girl with a missing finger and a troubled past.  

Although the movie does not have a strong plot line or a narrative that builds up to a climax or a conclusion, the main beauty of the film is in the unique atmosphere of Murakami’s world which has been captured perfectly by the director Kazuki Omori who has gone on to direct several Godzilla movies later on.

Fun fact: J’s bar, where many important scenes of the movie happen is a real bar in Kobe called “Halftime” that you can still visit. According to the narrator, the peanut shells left by himself and Rat would, "would have carpeted the floor of J's Bar at a depth of five centimeters"- a scene detail impressively recreated by the director in the film adaptation as well. The peanuts used during the shooting of this scene are still preserved inside a jar on Halftime Bar's counter.

Tony Takitani (2004)

Director: Jun Ichikawa

This movie is based on the exceptionally beautiful short story of the same name written by Murakami in 1990. Jun Ichikawa’s impeccable directing, Tomo Sanjoh’s slow-paced editing, Ryuichi Sakamoto's (Academy, Grammy, and Golden Globe awards winning composer) low-key music, and Issey Okamoto’s terrific performance all contribute to perfectly capturing the seductive simplicity and the surreal nature of Murakami’s world.

The main story is about “Tony” which is rooted in the important background story of his father Shozaburo Takitani from whom he gets his surname “Takitani". Interestingly, Issey Ogata plays the roles of both the son “Tony” and the father “Shozaburo Takitani”. Shozaburo Takitani, a Japanese jazz trombonist closely escapes death and returns to Japan in 1946 after spending the Second World War in China. When he has a son a year after he returns to Japan, he names the son “Tony” after a good-natured American soldier he had met during the war, and also with the hopes that the Western name would be good for his son in post-war Japan highly influenced by American culture.

This is where the son Tony’s story start and contrary to his father's hopes, the American name alienates him from his classmates and he grows up in loneliness and social isolation. Even after becoming a successful illustrator as an adult, he does not have any connection with society and the people around him, until he meets, falls in love, and then marries Eiko (Rie Miyazawa). To Tony, Eiko is like an angel, with whom he has the only real human connection. However, things start to become complicated due to Eiko’s addiction to shopping as she tries to fill her own void by buying designer clothing.

This movie addresses many difficult topics – the effect of the war on Japan, social alienation, loneliness, love, and empty consumerism but does it in a uniquely poetic, hauntingly quiet, and dreamy style.

Norwegian Wood (2010)

Director: Tran Anh Hung

Directed by award-winning Vietnamese-born French director Tran Anh Hung and based on Murakami’s 1987 novel of the same name, this romantic drama film is a poignant and foreboding tale of love, death, depression, personal loss, and the complexities of human relationships. The title name is based on the Beatles song “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)”, and the movie is set in Japan during the 1960s. Upon hearing the Beatles song, Toru Watanabe (Kenichi Matsuyama) starts recalling his life as a university student during the 1960s which involved dealing with the death of his best friend who had committed suicide, political revolutions (1960s Japan saw political movements and protests led by university students), and most importantly, his romantic involvement with two women.

The two women represent not only two romantic individual romantic interests but are the representation of polar aspects of life that many of us can relate to having to choose between. One of the women is Naoko (Rinko Kikuchi), who was Toru's best friend's girlfriend, with whom he grows close after the death of the best friend, and the relationship between them is not only based on romance and sexual tension but also on the mutual personal loss that has affected both of them greatly. However, Naoko spirals into depression and leaves to live in a remote sanitarium in a forest.

This is when he meets the other woman – Midori (Kiko Mizuhara) in Tokyo when he is attending the university, and she is everything that Naoko was not – charming, lively, fun, and flirty. Toru is torn between the two – past and future, pessimism and optimism, the countryside and the city. His relationship with Naoko is dark and foreboding yet full of nostalgic memories, his sense of responsibility towards his best friend, and the bond of mutual loss. On the other hand, his relationship with Midori is full of hope, leaving the past behind, and the beauty of what the future can be if he can let go of his past.

Hanalei Bay (2018)

Director: Daishi Matsunaga

Based on Murakami’s 2005 short story of the same name, this movie follows a poignant journey of a mother as she deals with the death of her son. Sachi (Yo Yoshida), a single mother receives a phone call one day bringing the news of the death of her son from a shark attack while he was surfing at Hanalei Bay, Hawaii. For 10 years since then, Sachi visits Hanalei Bay every year, spending time alone at the beach reading or thinking about her son. One day she meets two young Japanese surfers. By forming a bond with these two surfers who are about the same age as her son when he passed away, she begins to heal the grief of her loss.

Are you a Murakami fan? Which other works of Murakami do you think should be adapted into films – let us know in the comments!