Murakami Haruki on Film - (Asia Shorts) by Marc Yamada (Paperback)

About the Book

This book offers a timely look at the cinematic adaptations of Japanese writer Murakami Haruki's fiction over the past forty years. These films demonstrate the way adaptations are fundamentally creative works that say something new about the different cultural contexts in which they appear.

Book Synopsis

Murakami Haruki on Film offers a timely look at the cinematic adaptations of Japanese writer Murakami Haruki's fiction over the past forty years. Films based on Murakami's work (including Tony Takitani (2004), Norwegian Wood (2010), Burning (2018), Drive My Car (2022), and many more) manifest a contradictory impulse to faithfully capture the author's literary worlds while expanding and developing these worlds at the same time. Created by directors from Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Mexico, and the United States, among other national traditions, these films demonstrate the way adaptations are fundamentally creative works that say something new about the different cultural contexts in which they appear. Though the creative reworking of Murakami's literary worlds threatens to distance us from the author and his work, however, this book argues that the very process of "translating" Murakami from one medium to another references the theme of transformation that is central to his work.

Review Quotes

Provides a first English-language survey of Murakami's cinematic adaptations, highlighting his influence on contemporary literature and offering a well-rounded critique of Murakami's cinematic journey. It also situates the author at the centre of content delivery for modern filmmaking, detailing how Murakami's unique narrative style and thematic depth are translated onto the silver screen. Haruki's World is now within reach for everyone.--Etienne Boumans "Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television"

Murakami on Film does a remarkable job at being both accessible and informative. . . Yamada . . . Provides a useful primer for anyone wanting to go deeper into the theory of literary adaptation and, more specifically, into the cinematic adaptations of Murakami that continue to expand the author's oeuvre in unpredictable but rewarding ways.--Christopher Corker "Asian Review of Books"

About the Author

Marc Yamada is a Professor of Interdisciplinary Humanities at BYU. He received a PhD in Japanese Literature & Culture from UC Berkeley. Marc has published articles and books on modern Japanese literature, film, and manga. His recent books include Kore-eda Hirokazu: Shared Spaces of Filmmaking (University of Illinois Press, 2023) and Locating Heisei in Japanese Fiction and Film: The Historical Imagination of the Lost Decades (Routledge, 2019).