2008 / Robert Logevall > I’m probably not the easiest of people to please when adapting a Haruki Murakami work, but I tried my best to understand Logevall’s vision. Unfortunately, unlike Jun Ichikawa’s work on Tony Takitani, the hour and a half of meandering done by star Jason Lew seems forced and unnecessary. This was never a story that should have been developed this far, and had it been necessary to make it full-length, maybe taking Ichikawa’s direction (where the last half of his film is basically based on one short paragraph) would have been more suited. Otherwise, it mostly bores. On top, Joan Chen’s indie-quirks are pretty hit or miss (the latter being this, the former being Saving Face). Treatment for Murakami’s written word is hard: His novels are too complex, and his short stories are too simple. Either way, Murakami or no Murakami, All God’s Children Can Dance works only on the most superficial levels before receding back into the uninteresting.