Do you guys ever notice that if we did a lot of things that Japan did in America, we would be in very big trouble?
Can you imagine the feminist movement against the changing on the main character to some stereotypical passive Japanese helpless girl, or the idea that dating someone from a different cultural is so crazy that a movie is made about it. I know its been done and all….just sometimes I think when I see those commercials of foreigners trying to talk Japanese (think it was mcdonalds)….I cant imagine if we threw a Japanese girl on american tv and made her close her eyes and make a peace sign and go “OHHH YESSS I RIKE YUU BERY MUCHH” that we wouldn’t get flack for that….just in…rebuttal to the Americans not being so sensitive thing….the Japanese cultural in general is just a little more racist. Its not big secret. Most of them know racism is bad and most of them dont hate white people….but some of the racist things they do they just dont really see as racist as much as just pointing out what they see often (stereotypes). I think that makes us more sensitive. Or them not sensitive enough. who knows

So I watched the movie hoping it would be like the Manga in spirit and environment. However, it was totally different.
What the people said above is true, and I feel the same way. I graduated with a B.A in Japanese. I wasn’t the 100% best student in the world, but I was still in the top 10% of my class and lived in Japan for a year. The Japanese language is very difficult; Tony sounded and spoke like he had lived there for years. His accent was extremely good as if he had a Japanese parent or learned Japanese from a young age. Though I have met a couple non Japanese that have perfected there accents really well…few and far between
So because of that, I must share the gripe that he seems to be so oblivious about certain aspects of Japanese culture. You learn that too. Noone develops an amazing accent, comprehension, reading and writing ability including classical without learning about the culture and interacting with….people….

My main gripe is how sometimes I felt like the movie was just reenforcing stereotypes the entire time. Like the dick Japanese guy that wouldnt talk to him because he didnt speak english (which totally happens, sadly), and the douchy American that told her to study English (wtf who does that while living in Japan?)
Also, I have to agree in saying the girl got turned into someone she isn’t. Shes not the stereotypical shy japanese girl and Tony isnt some guy that leaves her at a party for hours and hours and ignored her like a goober.
The characters are supposed to be fun and quirky, but they got the quirks all wrong and contradictory.

This movie was a huge disappointment….please go read the books and laugh away! This movie sucked

As far as some romantic comedy cliches, and some sappy moments, well that’s why its a romcom, or chick flick. Normally I don’t prefer them because they are sentimental and sappy. But the audience is presumably female so I’m guessing they like that. Grousing about a romcom being too romcommy is a little silly, no?

People complaining about this film are engaging in a knee-jerk reaction. It’s not bashing anyone, not full of stereotypes, unless the “ambitious manga gf” and “quiet language-lover bf who is fluent in japanese” is a stereotype I’ve missed. The movie is fine. It’s probably even a step forward for more down to earth treatment, and surprisingly non-negative portrayal, of intercultural marriages.

I cant believe how personal some people are taking the movie lol Even its its not a good film, just take it easy. I really wonder if some people Watch? any movies at all.

> Fortunately, Westerners are not
> as sensitive to these things as
> most Asians are

Nice… any more generalizations and stereotypes?

First, the main character speaks exceedingly proficient Japanese, and so must have lived in Japan for quite some time and studied very diligently. And yet, he is shown throughout the film to have not a clue about Japanese culture and be totally unaware of basic cultural differences. This makes no sense. He also does dumb things that are not cultural gaffs, in that they are not things a Westerner might do unaware that it was inconsistent with Japanese culture. For example, he takes his girlfriend to a party where every single other guest is foreign, then ignores her for hours. In America, I would not take a date to a party where she knew no one, not introduce her to anyone and ignore her for hours, and this guy is otherwise quite considerate.

He is also shown to be “trying” to become a better future husband, by doing laundry and washing the dishes, which of course he proves to be hopeless at, being both a foreigner and a man. It made me wonder: He’d been living on his own for years before he met the Japanese girlfriend, how did he manage dishes and laundry before that? One thing he did was wash the dishes and leave the soap on when he put them up to dry: People in England do this, but Americans usually rinse off the soap after cleaning (this guy is supposedly American). Then there are vignettes of dumb things Japanese girlfriends’ foreign guys do, like putting Tobasco sauce in beer (I’ve been a gaijin all my life, I’ve never heard of that – anyone?). One guy brought white flowers to his girlfriend, OK, he would not have known those are used for funerals (the US postal service put white flowers on Chinese new year stamps in 2009, same thing: Chinese would be mortified by this, white being the color of death and white flowers for funerals only, really, really bad luck especially at the start of the new year).

Aside from that, it was a cute little film with some moderate insight into the ins and outs of cross-cultural relationships, moderate, very moderate and superficial ones, but I guess the film was meant to be a light-hearted comedy. Interesting that the Japanese girl is convinced the boyfriend’s family will not accept her because she is Japanese, when in fact it’s her family that does not accept the gaijin guy. She also totally takes for granted the stuff he does for her, like washing and making her tea, stuff no Japanese guy would do but instead of being happy she complains he does it all wrong.

But if you are interested in Japan and Japanese culture, you may find this amusing, as I did.