I picked up the DVD because of the introduction seems funny. After half of the film, I was wondering why I was still watching it. By curiosity, I decided to finish the film. And I was almost angry at myself why I wasted another hour of my life. It is a very badly made, no-story film. The film set is so far away from the reality, does not looks like a real office. It is hard to fall in love with the main character, almost to the point that you just don't care about this girl, she does nothing to change her misery. And the scene in which she trips herself naked and dance in the office looks really stupid and useless. On top of it, she put the garbage cover herself and sleep on the floor for the night. What does the filmmaker want to say about the personality. Amelie is not lovely, smart, and daring. What is her charm?What is the point of the film? The reality of working in a Japanese company as a foreigner? Who put up with all the abuse and still decides to stay in such a working environment does not deserve any pity. It is nothing to do with the difference between western and eastern culture. No company wants to waste their money to hire someone to do nothing. Japan has very limited resource, people hate wasting. A boss would keep wasting his employee's time and papers, it is hard to believe. They might love to torture this little Belgian girl but they would not like to waste their papers. In general, it is hard to believe that the rating of this film in IMDb is 7.1.

While I understand why some reviewers had a hard time with this film, the positive aspects of it far outweighed the negative for me.The cartoonish feel of the film served it well, especially given Sylvie Testud's whimsical face & sensibilities (most delightfully on display in the scene with her ripping off the calendar page with flourish to the applause of the gathered employees!) Testud plays the part with a childlike sincerity which is on the whole pleasing and watchable, even in light of all the hard-to-watch moments and implausible events.One simply cannot watch this in a strictly American mindset or it would turn into a farce, and not a very good one. The fact that the film is based on an autobiographical novel lent it more meaning & poignancy than if it were strictly fictional.~NN

As a long-time Japanophile and frequent visitor to Japan, I really wanted to enjoy "Fear and Trembling". Alas, the film ruined much of that potential for me. But first the pros: the social and business dynamics depicted are spot-on. The acting -- particularly by Tsuji Kaori -- is excellent. The office set where 99% of the film takes place, is utterly believable (for actually being filmed in Paris). The story has great potential, especially for being semi-autobiographical.So, what are the cons? First, the pacing. For a film whose cover blurb compares it to "Lost in Translation", it has few of that films transcendent passages. The latter's pacing is poetic. The former's is glacial. They could've cut at least 15 minutes of unnecessarily long scenes from this and ended up with a better film for it. Second, the protagonist. Passive, slovenly, usually dim-witted, I found it impossible to sympathize with her plight, or even to look at her.And third -- and most inexplicable -- the fact that she was utterly, bloody-mindedly ignorant of Japanese customs. The notion that she could speak idiomatic Japanese but not have learned even the basics of Japanese business etiquette is simply absurd. She knew enough to always address people by their proper titles, but not enough to *bow* when her bosses gave her an order?! She knew that blowing one's nose in front of another person was rude, but didn't know that she should never argue with her superiors?! She knew that she should accept blame for her own failures, but didn't know that staring at people is seen as highly aggressive?! Simply unbelievable.I suppose that many people watching "Fear and Trembling" who are ignorant of Japanese etiquette and protocol might not have as much trouble with these, but for those who *do* understand the basics of social interaction and hierarchy in Japan, her behavior goes from being sympathetic to unbearable. I ended up rooting for those who were beating her down, simply because she was such an "ugly American" (for being Belgian) an utter dolt. Of course, your mileage may vary.

Hi all, I've watched this movie and enjoyed it as a Japanese born in Tokyo and lived there for ~30 years (though my wife, also Japanese, was p***ed off.;-) Just a short comment on questions like "can this be real?" - my answer is clear and obvious "no". It could possibly happen to _Japanese_ female employees in a few nasty companies 30 years ago, but is simply impossible to "Westerners" as they are specially respected. Whether this is good or bad is another question.By the way, some of the text appearing at the official web site (http://www.cinemaguild.com/fearandtrembling/) as background decoration actually looks like Korean or something. It is definitely not Japanese. I'm not talking about the Katakana characters outside the flash window, but the white background inside the flash window itself, though it is very hard to see on some monitors.