Fear and Trembling (2003) - One of the Best USA Releases for 2005.
This overlooked masterpiece of experiential cinema was released in France back in July 2003 and then slowly through out Europe during the next year and only released in limited markets in the United States late last year, is only now being distributed in independent markets in wider distribution this month. This French/Japanese film takes a young Belgian woman who speaks fluent Japanese returning to Japan since leaving at age 5 to now work at a giant, huge import-export Japanese Corporation. The cultural intersection and immersion into conflict and humiliation explodes with shouting, wry humor, various shots of Charlie Kaufman-like surrealism (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Adaptation, Being Malkovich) has been compared to "Lost in Translation."
This little picture provides even more insight and heightened appreciation and awareness of culture than Lost in Translation and it is able to both emotional and intellectual resonate with delicious sensory delight whereas Lost in Translation resonated mostly ont the experiential-sensory level. Fear and Trembling takes Lost in Translation a step further and envelopes the audience with more intensity, more live-changing events, and a mounting sense of direction that even at the end while possible degradation and dispair, offers hope and redemption.
