Fear and Trembling (film)

Fear and Trembling (original title: Stupeur et Tremblements) is a 2003 French film based on the novel of the same name by Amélie Nothomb.

Amélie, a young Belgian woman (Sylvie Testud), having spent her childhood in Japan, decides to return to live there and try to integrate into Japanese society.

Though she is hired for a choice position as a translator at an import/export firm, her inability to understand Japanese cultural and business norms and allocation to work for which she is not suited result in increasingly humiliating demotions.

Amelie realizes that she is finally a real Japanese when she enters the company president's office "with fear and trembling," which was possible only because her determination had been broken by Mori's systematic humiliation.

For Westerners, it calls to mind a line from Philippians 2:12, "continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling", which could also describe Amélie's attitude during her year at Yumimoto.