Famous Japanese author Haruki Murakami is happy with the first animated adaptation of his short stories

TOKYO – Renowned Japanese author Haruki Murakami expressed joy at how several of her short stories were adapted into American director Pierre Földes’ animated film, “Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman,” adding that she wanted to see future interpretations of her work with spin from the filmmakers themselves.

The Japanese version of the 2022 film will be released for the first time in Japan on July 26. It is the first animated adaptation of Murakami’s film. to work.

After screening the film on Saturday at his alma mater Waseda University in Tokyo, Murakami – joining Földes in a lecture session – admitted that although he was not a fan of animated films, he watched them twice.

The filmmaker was inspired by six short stories by Murakami: “Super-Frog Saves Tokyo” and “UFO in Kushiro” – from the collection “After the Quake”, written after the fatal Kobe earthquake in 1995 – and “Birthday Girl”, “Dabchick ”, “The wind-up bird and the women of Tuesday”.

“Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman” is set in Tokyo, following the March 2011 earthquake, tsunami and Fukushima meltdown. It focuses on three main characters – Katagiri, a diligent but lonely and unconfident banker who teams up with a giant talking frog to save Tokyo from an impending second earthquake, his younger and unenthusiastic colleague, and his wife Kyoko, who – depressed and glued to news of the earthquake on TV – leaves him. Through memories and dreams, the three end up finding peace and the ability to start again.

Murakami praised the animated version of the intelligent green frog, voiced by Földes, saying it matched what he imagined the character to be.

“What I would like to see is not a mere cinematic version of what I wrote, but something added to it and becoming something new,” Murakami said during the talk.

Földes said his approach “is to be true to my interpretation of the things that inspire me,” which obviously worked for Murakami.

The American filmmaker said he didn’t have a definitive plan when he chose six stories that “I love.” But things started to build “like different cultures growing together,” he told Murakami. that’s how I combined all of their stories into one story with other stories inside.”

The popular writer’s works have inspired several award-winning works, including 2021’s “Drive My Car” by Japanese director Ryusuke Hamaguchi and 2018 “Burning” by South Korean director Lee Chang-dong.

Murakami cited Földes’ films and animation as examples that successfully achieved his and the directors’ goals.

“Making a film based on short stories would require creativity from directors to add their own materials, which tends to help in creating an interesting product,” he said, noting that adapting a film from a full-length novel may require the opposite to do so. in a two-hour production.

Murakami also said that his “Underground,” his long investigative nonfiction work based on interviews with people affected by the poison gas terrorist attack on the Tokyo subway system in 1995, would make a fascinating film.

“Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman” received a nomination for best animated film at the 2024 Lumières Awards.