June 22, 2006

With Fear and Trembling


"Amelie, a Japanese-born Belgian, returns to the East after a decade and a half's absence, employed as a translator by an oriental mega-corporation. Her first job is in 'The noble art of making tea'. Her second, a brief stint in passing out post, is cut short since the mailman nearly has a breakdown, believing he's been fired. Amelie is repremanded for taking initiative. Her third task is keeping the calendars up to date. It only goes down (and down) from there."

The movie is an exact replica of the novel, an easy read of a few hours, at the longest, a few days.

With 90% of the text in Japanese, it's expected that this movie (from a french novel) will be subtitled in english and in other languages, as its theme, cultural gaps in working relationships (in this case between the East and the West) is a universal one.

This story, autobiographic as it may, makes you wonder whether Amelie Nothomb allowed herself to be treated this way in order to better write it later.... or if she wrote about it to overcome the trauma. An entertaining movie that will make you think.

Official Websites:
En francais
In English

The Beaver

My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

5 comments:

Beaver said...

Rrrrrrr. Hate spammers. Sorry guys, I enable comment moderation because of these annoying pests.

Please feel free to drop a line though !

Anonymous said...

¡Hola guapa!

Glad to read your news again :)

I quite like I like Amelie Nothomb, she's pretty ironic... I read this book some time ago and couldn't stop laughting!

While in Senegal I watched a movie version in tv5, not as good as the book...

Besines!

cristina said...

don't think i will be able to get my hands on the movie - but will try to get hold of the book (maybe in French to practice...)
Saw your beautiful new header. Would love to change mine, but don't know how. Checked your guide in the sidebar but i must be too thick as it does not work....

Beaver said...

Hola Guapa :o)

I'm glad you enjoyed the book! Try to get your hands on the movie, it's quite good, espescially Sylvie Testud (Amelie-san)....

Nyasha, the movie came out in France a good while ago (though it just came out in Montreal this week...) The book can easily be purchased on Amazon.com, and the movie is probably available online too...

I will make my next post about changing the header... just for you :o)

Cheers,

Beav'

juliana said...

sounds like a very interesting book/movie. I'm buying a few books to take with me to Mali. Somethings to read while I'm there. Maybe I'll check it out. :)

I loved your comment on my blog. And you're right. I think that the PC influenced her to start her organization so her time there wasn't to waste. I agree with her opinions as well, but I'm hoping to use it as a spring board to do more and better things in the future.