AllMovie

Celebrated Vietnamese director Tran Anh Hung (The Scent of Green Papaya) mounted and helms this ambitious adaptation of Haruki Murakami's nostalgic 1987 novel. The story unfolds in 1967 Tokyo and concerns Watanabe, a devoted college student with a marked degree of uncertainty about how he should approach relationships. He falls into reciprocal love with Naoko, a stunning and intelligent young woman from his high-school years, but their relationship is perpetually haunted by a tragic event from the past -- the death of best friend Kizuki years prior. Watanabe cannot shake the influence of death, while Naoko senses that some vital part of her is now permanently lost and irretrievable. On the night that Naoko turns 20, she and Watanabe make love, but she soon drops out of college and inexplicably disappears from the young man's life. At about the same time, he meets Midori, an incredible young woman who seems to possess everything that Naoko lacked.