Watching the movie version of Norwegian Wood greatly altered my view of Naoko. Her 20th birthday scene was especially striking for me in contributing to speculations about her dying before going to the Ami Hostel. When blowing out the candles to her birthday cake, Naoko expresses her wish to be stuck between the ages of 18 and 19. Her wish not to stay a certain age, but to bounce back and forth between two alludes to her elusive and floating presence. Her apprehension toward turning 20, an age which marks one’s maturity in Japan, underscores her reluctance toward entering a definitive stage of life. She wants to exist only in fragments. Naoko’s teasing of her wish to die is arguably fulfilled in her intercourse with Toru. As she loses her virginity, she equally loses her vitality. Turning pale, she seeps into unconsciousness and lies in the same position all night. As she sleeps naked, with nothing but a white cloth covering her, she resembles both a newborn and a corpse. While intercourse reproduces life, to Naoko, it consummates her connection with death. By blurring the line between birth and death, Naoko resides in the in-between she outlined in her wish to live between ages 18 and 19.
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