Fear and Trembling
2003 · 107 MIN · IMDB 7.0 · 4,899 VOTES · DIR. Alain Corneau
Overview
Amélie, a young Belgian woman, having spent her childhood in Japan, decides to return to live there and tries to integrate in the Japanese society. She is determined to be a "real Japanese" before her year contract runs out, though it precisely this determination that is incompatable 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 norms results in increasingly humiliating demotions. Though Amelie secretly adulates her, her immediate supervisor takes sadistic pleasure in belittling her all along. She finally manages to break Amelie's will by making her the bathroom attendant, and is delighted when Amelie tells her the 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 could only be possible because her determination was broken by Miss Fubuki's systematic torture.
Dialogue Timeline — 1,204 lines
A SAMPLE ACROSS THE RUNTIME — EVERY LINE IS SEARCHABLE
00:02:17 I was born in Japan.
00:06:58 Start over!
00:11:14 For Mr Mizuno, 1 goblet of Coke per hour.
00:14:43 Maybe a Japanese brain can force itself
00:18:46 How do you know it was in Nara?
00:23:05 I had to turn
00:29:17 I think it will work.
00:33:05 he'll be glad to be rid of me.
00:35:49 I warn you: That was your first and last report!
00:39:13 By being impeccable, she passed the age for marriage.
00:42:43 You have no right to speak to me so rudely!
00:46:17 This is odd...
00:49:49 Honour! What do you know about honour?
00:53:51 Four of my fingers could hardly move
00:58:55 In your first name, there's "snow".
01:05:03 I was cold...
01:09:11 - You think I'm a fool! - Don't scold me!
01:13:34 Now there was no stopping my downfall:
01:17:55 Now what have I done?
01:20:28 "some of their decisions.
01:27:25 I'll be eternally grateful for that.
01:30:38 that I cannot renew it.
01:34:30 Sadly, I wasn't worthy of the honour.
14:19:09 I began to write my first novel.