Australian
Screen

an NFSA website

Japanese Story (2003)

play
Email a link to this page
To:
CC:
Subject:
Body:
clip A rude introduction

Original classification rating: M. This clip chosen to be G

Clip description

Mr Tachibana (Gotaro Tsunashima) waits outside the Port Hedland airport. Sandy Edwards (Toni Collette) arrives late, and with no idea of the proper way to greet a visitor from Japan. Mr Tachibana also has no idea of Australian manners – including never sitting in the back seat. At the large iron ore mine that he has come to inspect, part-owned by his father, the mining company’s Mr Richards (John Howard) shows much greater formal knowledge. Sandy is surprised to hear him speak Japanese. She’s even more surprised when the visitor shows he can speak English.

Curator’s notes

by Paul Byrnes

Much of the film is preoccupied with language, and the potential for misunderstanding between cultures, but this scene illustrates a wilful understanding. Mr Hiromitsu is withholding his language skills from Ms Edwards because she offends his sensibilities, and possibly because she is ‘only a woman’. He opens up immediately to John Howard, playing Richards. We suspect this is not simply because Richard addresses him in Japanese, and with due deference. He has ‘standing’ because he’s a man, something she is always denied in the film.

Thanks to the generosity of the rights holders, we are able to offer A rude introduction from the feature film Japanese Story as a high quality video download.

To play the downloadable video, you need QuickTime 7.0, VLC, or similar.

You must read and agree to the following terms and conditions before downloading the clip:

australianscreen is produced by the National Film and Sound Archive. By using the website you agree to comply with the terms and conditions described elsewhere on this site. The NFSA may amend the 'Conditions of Use’ from time to time without notice.

All materials on the site, including but not limited to text, video clips, audio clips, designs, logos, illustrations and still images, are protected by the Copyright Laws of Australia and international conventions.

When you access australianscreen you agree that:

  • You may retrieve materials for information only.
  • You may download materials for your personal use or for non-commercial educational purposes, but you must not publish them elsewhere or redistribute clips in any way.
  • You may embed the clip for non-commercial educational purposes including for use on a school intranet site or a school resource catalogue.
  • The National Film and Sound Archive’s permission must be sought to amend any information in the materials, unless otherwise stated in notices throughout the Site.

All other rights reserved.

ANY UNAUTHORISED USE OF MATERIAL ON THIS SITE MAY RESULT IN CIVIL AND CRIMINAL LIABILITY.

This clip is available in the following configurations:

File nameSizeQualitySuitability
japanese1_pr.mp4 Large: 23.4MB High Optimised for full-screen display on a fast computer.
japanese1_bb.mp4 Medium: 11.0MB Medium Can be displayed full screen. Also suitable for video iPods.

Right-click on the links above to download video files to your computer.

Thanks to the generosity of the rights holders, we are able to offer this clip in an embeddable format for personal or non-commercial educational use in full form on your own website or your own blog.

You must read and agree to the following terms and conditions before embedding the clip:

australianscreen is produced by the National Film and Sound Archive. By using the website you agree to comply with the terms and conditions described elsewhere on this site. The NFSA may amend the 'Conditions of Use’ from time to time without notice.

All materials on the site, including but not limited to text, video clips, audio clips, designs, logos, illustrations and still images, are protected by the Copyright Laws of Australia and international conventions.

When you access australianscreen you agree that:

  • You may retrieve materials for information only.
  • You may download materials for your personal use or for non-commercial educational purposes, but you must not publish them elsewhere or redistribute clips in any way.
  • You may embed the clip for non-commercial educational purposes including for use on a school intranet site or a school resource catalogue.
  • The National Film and Sound Archive’s permission must be sought to amend any information in the materials, unless otherwise stated in notices throughout the Site.

All other rights reserved.

ANY UNAUTHORISED USE OF MATERIAL ON THIS SITE MAY RESULT IN CIVIL AND CRIMINAL LIABILITY.

Copy and paste the following code into your own web page to embed this clip: