Train Man

Train Man is a very relaxing comedy movie and definitely a fairy tale for geeks. The story is about a geeky man named Takayuki Yamada who spends all his spare time in the world of toys, movies and online chatting. He probably never ever dreams himself to be a hero of a lovely woman one day. This romantic yet a little embarrassing heroism takes place on a train and that’s how he later gets his name “train man”. The woman appreciates his great courage and asks for his address to thank him for his good deed. Being energized by this encounter he posts his story on a message board and this earns him a team of faithful readers. By the numerous advices given by his readers, train man successfully ask the woman out. Everything goes on quite smoothly in a pretty much unexpected way. After a few more happy dates, the train man finally decide to tell the woman his real feelings about her, but near the end of the movie he gets frustrated by their different social status and once again loses his courage. Thanks to his warmhearted supporters, train man finally goes through pain and sorrow, and determines to face the woman he loves. The ending of the story is a happy one. Train man and the woman he “saved” become lovers and promise each other to be together for ever.

What impresses me most is the number of times train man is saying sorry. That’s not because he feels guilty or what, but because being polite is a very essential part of the Japanese culture. The extent of politeness in Japanese culture probably stands out in the whole eastern culture. As a neighbor of Japan, we have a lot in common. For instance, we both bow. In China people only bow to the old or the people they respect, and they bow only once and that’s it. However, in Japan people bow more frequently and it seems the most suitable number is the more the better. In some comedy shows, you can see two Japanese keeping bowing to each other when they say goodbye. I guess that’s maybe a little exaggerating but it certainly reflect the importance of politeness to Japanese.

At the end of the movie, there is a scene that train man picks up a license which he thinks belongs to a little girl, but it turns out to be the heroine’s. That’s a sign of karma. Karma is very significant in Asian culture. It comes from the influence of Buddhism. People believe even the people who walk by you in the streets needs karma, because there are billions of people out there in the world, but it is karma that makes this very person to walk by. For lovers, karma has an even more miraculous effect. All the love stories in Asian culture have something to do with karma, and that explains why Asian movies are more likely to focus on the story of how young people fall in love while western movies are more concerned about the stories of people after they became lovers.