Those who loved poring through Agota Kristof's 1986 novel, "Le Grand Cahier," have been waiting for a film adaptation for almost two decades.

Written by the Hungarian while she was in exile, this was the first book (published in English as "The Notebook") in a best-selling trilogy, and by the early 1990's the Japanese translation, titled "Akudou Nikki," became a cult sensation. Actress Rie Miyazawa once told me she loved reading it between takes on movie sets and the scene at Tokyo's '90s clubs such as Gold and Juliana's was full of kids who carried the novel around like a talisman. Cult manga artist Kyoko Okazaki hailed it as a work that changed her life. In 2006, Shigesato Itoi created "Mother 3," a video game featuring characters inspired by the novel's protagonists Lucas and Claus.

Some 20-odd years later, Hungarian film director Janos Szasz has come out with the film version and — as far as adaptations go — this is as marvelous as it gets. Szasz has reincarnated Kristof's world in a way that's so faithful to the original novel, it seems the author dreamed the images and willed them into existence.