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American and Japanese Movie Audiences Differ Reviewed by Ryosuke from Japan Promotional Poster I was surprised to see that movie audiences in Japan and movie audiences in America react differently. I went to a movie theater with my roommate. His hobby is watching movies. He watches a video movie more than once a week. In our room, he has put a movie actress' poster on the wall. He is enthusiastic about movies. I was very glad when he said that he would take me to a movie theater. There are no bus services in this town, and I can not get off campus, but fortunately he has a car. I always spend my time reading books in the library, swimming in the pool, or jogging, so I looked forward to going to the movies. The movie we saw was called The Patriot. It described the love between a father and his children during the time of the American War of Independence. The father had an animosity against the British army and took revenge for his son's death. Actually, it is a war story based on history, but the story was created by a writer for entertainment. The movie was enjoyable in that sometimes it made us laugh, and other times it made us cry. It was a successful movie as entertainment. By the way, I can not agree that a serious and true story be used for commercial and entertainment. The most interesting thing was the movie theater itself. It was different. Though I can concentrate on watching a movie in Japan, I could not there because of the reaction by the audience. They laughed loudly when an actor told a joke and they applauded at the climax when the main character killed the enemy. It was amazing to me that they expressed their emotions openly. In other words, an American theater is a space for everyone to enjoy in common. If I did that in a public place in Japan, most of the audience would look down at me or complain about the noisiness, and the person beside me might say, "Could you please be silent?" There seems to be a cultural difference between the U.S. and Japan. It is said that Americans always express their emotions and opinions and that the Japanese always conceal theirs. I'm glad to observe such a difference because I can feel I am experiencing a real thing while visiting the U.S. Return to: Cultural Glimpses | It's International Home Page TOPICS Online Magazine ©1997-2009 - Sandy and Thomas Peters - topics.mag@gmail.com