Vietnamese-French director Tran Anh Hung crossed cultural and linguistic borders to direct his latest film, “Norwegian Wood,” based on the cult coming-of-age Japanese novel.
The Oscar-nominated director, who has taken home prizes from both Cannes and Venice, filmed the love story with an entirely Japanese cast.
Tran told reporters Thursday, the day his film is premiering at the Venice Film Festival in competition for the Golden Lion, that he didn’t try to make a Japanese film — and in fact sought a set design that would not be completely familiar to Japanese audiences.
“I want the Japanese viewer to have a different take and see their own decor in a different way, that it is somewhat exotic and different in their eyes,” Tran said. He called in a set designer from previous movies who would understand his aims.
“Otherwise this staggered view would not have been possible with just a troupe that was completely Japanese.”
The film, like the book, is set in Tokyo in the late 1960s. Watanabe, played by Kenichi Matsuyama, is a young university student struggling to choose between two women, one the girlfriend of his best friend who committed suicide, and the other self-confident and independent, representing the future.
The novel by Haruki Murakami has won worldwide popularity, and many directors had approached the author to adapt it to film. More than 10 million copies of the book have been sold in Japan alone, with 2.6 million more sold in another 33 languages.
Tran said he didn’t know why he was chosen, but producer Shinji Ogawa said Murakami wanted an Asian director to project the region’s aesthetic.
“Obviously we did meet with Murakami. Not just once,” Tran said. Murakami made many notes on the first screen play, which Tran called “a fairly important document,” but said they were too numerous to elaborate.
“After this exchange of comments and notes, Murakami said, ‘Go with the film you have in your head. What you have to do is make the most beautiful film possible.'”
“Norwegian Wood” is among 22 films, plus a still-to-be announced surprise film, competing for the Golden Lion, which will be awarded Sept. 11.
Tran won the Golden Lion in 1995 for “Cyclo,” which tells the hard-life tale of a young rickshaw driver, and his first film, “The Scent of Green Papaya,” took home the Camera d’Or from Cannes and was nominated for an Academy Award. “Norwegian Wood” is his fifth film.
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More