By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Alain Corneau
Starring: Kaori Tsuji | Sylvie Testud | Taro Suwa
Original language title: Stupeur et tremblements
Country: france, japan
Year: 2005
Running time: 107
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0318725/combined
Bruce says: “Social satire is tricky business and I, more often than not, find it distasteful. Not so in the case of FEAR AND TREMBLING a wonderful satire of the clash between Japanese corporate culture and the shocking ‘western’ behavior of a Belgian girl who recently graduated from college and has been hired as a translator at the Yumimoto Corporation. Amélie (Sylvie Testud) is a girl who was born in Japan and has always felt she had great affinity for the culture of the orient. She fondly remembers meditating on the steps of a Japanese rock garden at the age of five just before she and her parents returned to Belgium. The opportunity of working for a huge Japanese corporation is what Amélie considers a true coup de chance.
“Hired as a translator based on her reading, writing and speaking skills in Japanese and English as well as her native French, Amélie is sure she can offer a major contribution. Her first assignment is to write a letter in English accepting a golf date for her boss’ boss, Mr. Saito. Mr. Saito reads the letter then rips up her first effort, crying ‘Unacceptable!’ All day she labors with her one-sentence letter; soon she realizes Mr. Saito is not even looking at what she has written. He is making her earn her stripes in a way that some boss had done to him many years before. Amélie’s immediate boss is Fubuki Mori whose beauty both fascinates and intimidates Amélie. Because they are the only two women in the department and coincidentally were born in the same Provence, Amélie falsely senses a strong camaraderie between the two of them. Amélie has no work so one day she decides to be the one who distributes the beverage for all the workers. That plan backfires shortly thereafter at an important meeting with a big client; Amélie speaks perfect Japanese to the guests and they leave, insulted. Mr. Saito berates her and tells her to forget she knows Japanese, not an easy task for a translator.
“After Amélie unsuccessfully tries being in charge of office calendars, Mr. Saito gives her a huge tome to xerox. Time after time, he throws out the work saying that the print is off center. Mr. Tenshi, an executive in a neighboring department sees Amélie at the copier and immediately taps her to conduct multi-language interviews and write an important position paper on obtaining a Japanese patent for Belgian no-fat butter. Amélie’s report is a huge success or so it appears. Suddenly Mr. Saito’s boss is reprimanding her for performing work that was not sanctioned by her own work area. Instead of the ascendant star she hoped to be, Amélie instantly becomes a pariah and begins her descent on the corporate ladder, quickly learning in the process how little the gender bonding with Fubuki has helped her cause.
“What follows is very funny and delightful. Were it not for an uncanny resemblance to corporate America I would undoubtedly disliked the film for its lusty Japan bashing. In America as in Japan, too frequently the energy of youth is trampled in the tradition of paying one’s dues, assertive contributions are admonished under the euphemism of overreaching one’s responsibility and great talent is ignored by those who would rather follow rules than take risks. Sylvie Testud is an able comedienne and Kaori Tsuji lights up the screen with her cold-as-steel beauty. The men are all caricatures deliciously portrayed by excellent character
actors. I’ll overlook the fact that the film did drag a bit near the end and has a flying subtext borrowed from I’VE HEARD THE MERMAIDS SINGING which is dangerously close to unpardonable. All in all, it was an extraordinary breath of fresh air. 4.5 cats”