''Fear and Trembling'' (original title: ''Stupeur et Tremblements'') is a 2003 French film based on the novel of the same name by

Amélie Nothomb Baroness Fabienne Claire Nothomb (), better known by her pen name Amélie Nothomb (; born 13 August 1967),''État présent de la noblesse belge'', éditions of 1979, 1995 and 2010. Her birth is announced in n° 87, aout 1967, p. 340 of the ''Bull ...

. The film was written and directed by

Alain Corneau Alain Corneau (7 August 1943 – 30 August 2010) was a French film director and writer. Corneau was born in Meung-sur-Loire, Loiret. Originally a musician, he worked with Costa-Gavras as an assistant, which was also his first opportunity to work ...

and stars

Sylvie Testud Sylvie Testud (born 17 January 1971) is a French actress hose film career est Actress for '' Fear and Trembling'' (2003), and the European Film Award for Best Actress for '' Lourdes'' (2009). Her other film roles include '' Beyond Silence'' ( ...

Plot

Amélie, a young Belgian woman (

), having spent her childhood in Japan, decides to return to live there and try to integrate into

Japanese society The culture of Japan has changed greatly over the millennia, from the country's prehistoric Jōmon period, to its contemporary modern culture, which absorbs influences from Asia and other regions of the world. Historical overview The ances ...

. She is determined to be a "real Japanese" before her one year contract runs out, though it is precisely this determination that is incompatible with Japanese humility. Though she is hired for a choice position as a translator at an import/export firm, her inability to understand Japanese cultural and business norms and allocation to work for which she is not suited result in increasingly humiliating demotions. Though Amelie secretly adores her immediate supervisor, Ms Mori ( Kaori Tsuji), the latter takes sadistic pleasure in belittling Amelie. Mori finally manages to break Amelie's will by making her the bathroom attendant, and is delighted when Amelie tells her that she will not renew her contract. Amelie realizes that she is finally a real Japanese when she enters the company president's office "with fear and trembling," which was possible only because her determination had been broken by Mori's systematic humiliation. The title, "Fear and Trembling", is said in the film to be the way Japanese must behave when addressing the Emperor. For Westerners, it calls to mind a line from Philippians 2:12, "continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling", which could also describe Amélie's attitude during her year at Yumimoto.

Cast

as Amélie * Kaori Tsuji as Fubuki * Taro Suwa as Mr. Saito * Bison Katayama as Mr. Omochi * Yasunari Kondo as Mr. Tenshi * Sokyu Fujita as Mr. Haneda * Gen Shimaoka as Mr. Unaji * Heileigh Gomes as young Amélie * Eri Sakai as young Fubuki

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 91%, based on 35 reviews, with an average rating of 7.3/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "This tale of culture clash is by turns downbeat and hilarious." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

the film has a score of 75 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". A. O. Scott of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' wrote that though there are moments in the film which seem well observed, there are also times when the film slips toward stereotyping.

Accolades

References

External links

* {{Alain Corneau 2003 films French comedy-drama films Films based on Belgian novels Films directed by Alain Corneau Films featuring a Best Actress César Award-winning performance Films featuring a Best Actress Lumières Award-winning performance Films set in Japan Office work in popular culture Japan in non-Japanese culture