Tony Takitani on DVD (2004)

Gingerferret from Derby , 29/06/2006

This film is beautifully shot and scored; the constant left to right panning of the camera is reminiscent of a Japanese scroll.

However as a big fan of Haruki Murakami's fiction I felt that this adaptation captured only half the story....the portrayal of loneliness and solitude is rendered bland and washed out without the inner dialogue and imaginings of the protagonist.

The narrative/dialogue combination goes some way to rectifying this but it is not totally successful.

Towards the end it felt too long even though it’s barely an hour and a quarter long.

Perhaps there is good reason Murakami is famously reluctant to allow adaptation of his work

  21 out of 33 people found this review helpful

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A customer from England , 10/08/2006

How a man's life came into its own and its influences to the present, a movie within a movie is created in this mesmerising story. Subtly and delicately told, the movie begins filled with images of Japan's past from the twenties onwards. The story soon moves to the present and a compelling story of a loner who finds love with a woman obsessed with clothes. The story very sensitively looks at grief and how this man who was terrified of loosing the happiness he'd found, deals with this and the re-emergence of his loner self. Beautifully shot and superbly directed, this is a movie that will be particularly appreciated by lovers of French arthouse movies and Japanese culture.

  8 out of 8 people found this review helpful

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J from Northampton, England , 25/08/2006

A beautiful tale of loneliness. I didn't think it would be possible to do Haruki Murakami's short novel justice in film format, but I have been proved wrong. It is rare for a film to touch me in the way that this one has. Highly recommended.

  7 out of 8 people found this review helpful

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the Writeress from London [Highly rated reviewer] , 24/12/2006

This is a very beautiful picture to watch - the story slightly malincholic is soave and lightfooted. What overwhelms you is the stunning photography and composition of images. A perfect piece of architectural meaningfulness, both pictorially and thematically. Its intelligence lies in its duration: had it been any longer, it would have slipped into a self-indulgent, self-aware piece of art.

  4 out of 5 people found this review helpful

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