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Great summary, OP.Post 9-11 User posted:Americans are fat slobs that smoke, don't understand concepts like culture or the existence of non-Americans. One character is so unable to accept that a Japanese woman doesn't also speak Chinese is so baffling to him it takes him ten minutes of conversation for him to accept it. I think you may be overstating how negatively the rural American characters were portrayed. They're quite ignorant, sure, but it's a fairly benign ignorance that's mixed with just as much compassion and curiosity for the most part. Giving a Japanese person an English-translation copy of Shogun was just a clumsy attempt at making a cross-cultural or human connection with a foreigner in need. The police officer's Minnesota-niceness also borders on caricature with his concern for Kumiko. Other than at the airport, most of the Americans seemed pretty well-meaning, even the creepy cab driver. "Maybe happy people are right in some ways after all" is an uncomfortable idea to deal with, I think. Kumiko is depressed but what little willpower (or "guts" in Japanese?) she has left has been sharpened into an obsession and undertaking that will vindicate her status as outsider and failure. But unfortunately it's mom who gets total vindication in the end. In spite of the yelling, I got the sick feeling that she was sort of reveling in her daughter's lack of character and probable demise. It felt like haranguing her daughter had just become a habit she'd developed over the years that she'd learned to take pleasure in, like a vulture picking at the vulnerable bits of a sad, abandoned, almost-dead animal. Instead of getting a promotion, Kumiko got crazy and criminal.  The laundry, the rabbit, the calls from mom, the lady who can't believe a foreigner is visiting Fargo, and especially the last officer scene were all great moments of miscommunication/disregard of others' needs. Great film, don't want to watch it again for a long time.
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Jul 16, 2015 06:56
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| # ¿ May 14, 2024 06:48 |
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