Friday, November 26, 2010

Norwegian Wood X Uniqlo: Literature Goes Multi-D

Norwegian Wood is the classic song by The Beatles

Norwegian Wood is the popular novel by Haruki Murakami

Norwegian Wood is the to-be-aired film by Tran Anh Hung

Norwegian Wood is the just-in-store tee collection by Uniqlo

 

read this novel

by Haruki Murakami

quite sometimes ago

and I pretty like it

and immediately move on to

《Kafka by The Shore》

 

next up should be

《1Q84》

heard it’s good

it’s gonna be a huge project

 

shamefully speaking

I gave up reading

for months

believing I will be getting

a tablet like iPad soon

and can read everything

in electronic form

the tablet never been realized yet

so I just hang on there

waiting for books

to fall into my brain

 

who would not know him

if you have been keeping an eye

on Asian stuffs

even you don’t

if you know modern literature

should at least have heard of him

described as

"among the world's greatest living novelists"

by The Guardian

 

more commonly known as

村上春樹  

in the oriental world

Haruki Murakami 村上春樹

 

I read the mandarin version too

maybe someday should try English

to see whether it makes any difference

but English one should be quite original

because the author himself

specializes in English-Japanese translation work

and of course

if I ever master Japanese

it is still the best

to stick to the original version

 

nostalgic story

above love, youth, life

to be specific

loss and sexuality

 

I always like this kind

of themes

just like 《Hiroshima Mon Amour》

or 《The Catcher in The Rye

well life is not a bed of roses

these are the real paintings

the real illustration of

how do you deal with

your own feelings

 

sexuality…

it’s not something pornographic

just that as body contact

get more intimate

the more you find out

about the other person

 

and those great work of art

it always amaze me

to find out from where

does the title come from

 

Norwegian Wood??

yes..

it is that classic by The Beatles

as one of fav track

that the protagonist

learnt to strum

on his guitar

 

Norwegian Wood / The Beatles

contrasting the novel

this is a folk song

but closer look at the lyric

it may not be

this is the wonder of the boys

 

okay

the movie trailer

which made its appearance at the

67th Venice Film Festival

Norwegian Wood Movie trailer

regarding the movie

I have reserved my comments

till I really have the opportunity

to watch the whole film

because most of the time

fill fall off the high expectation

I always have

 

(quoted from AX3 Battery')

 

Uniqlo is collaborating with the author

celebrating the novel turning into a film.

movie poster

 

The collaboration will feature a total of 9 designs.

The film will be released on December 11, 2010

starring Kenichi Matsuyama

(most recognized as playing L in Death Note).

 

Celebrating the release of the film, “Norwegian Wood” ,

the costumes they wore for the movie

will be on display in two stores in Shibuya Dogenzaka

until early December.

 

These tees will go on sale starting

November 23rd, 2010; in stores and online

 

the 9 tees from Uniqlo

for sale at 1500 Yen each

rough 18 USD

the woodthe wordingsplease remember me foreverWatanabe & Naokothe protagonists

 

Norwegian wood / The Beatles

Rubber Soul (1965)

I once had a girl or should I say she once had me
She showed me her room, isn’t it good? Norwegian wood

She asked me to stay and she told me to sit anywhere
So I looked around and I noticed there wasn’t a chair

I sat on a rug biding my time drinking her wine
We talked until two and then she said: ’It’s time for bed’

She told me she worked in the morning and started to laugh
I told her I didn’t and crawled off to sleep in the bath

And when I awoke I was alone, this bird had flown
So I lit a fire, isn’t it good? Norwegian wood