Trailer, trailer, did you know you fascinate me a lot? Every time when I saw you, I just want to watch your full version in cinema nearby...However, suddenly I found that you have many brothers and sisters, all of them have different clothes and speak in different languages... Oh, which should I watch...
The answer is, watch them both on the same time! Moreover, as we know, the culture between Western and Eastern countries are quite different, we can view that differences on - movie trailers too! In our mind, we often know the differences between 2 cultures, but we often are speechless while we need to describe their unique characteristics clearly. However, in the movie trailer, according to their using of background music, or the orders or which scenes they strongly put emphasis on can show their differences.
Only words are not enough, maybe have a look on the trailer of "2012" first? I chose the 4th Japanese trailer(above) and the US 2nd trailer. Although the number of trailer is not the same, you may found out the first 30 seconds have lots of similarities. Like their words/slogan are the same, the scenes are the same - Of course! They showed the same movies! But do not close them immediately, the climax will start from 0:50!
You may found that the background music and the scenes they choose are not the same after 50 seconds, but they still have some identical elements. For example, both of them try to create a circumstance of Doom, they all tried to use rapid scenes to overwhelmed the audiences and often used scenes of something collapsed, like the shopping mall or the highway.
Japan, representative of Eastern culture
Why I choose Japan as a representative of Eastern culture, it is simple. Japan is somehow a traditional nation, also it prefer the products of Japanese more than Western one, even for a Western movie, they will make a different version with the original version. Because of that, it would be easier for us to recognize the differences between Western and Eastern.Obviously, the Japanese trailers focus on the religion first, it used psalm as background music with sorrowful scenes to build up an atmosphere of tragedy and attempt to let audience have an imagination of the end of the Earth, such as the church collapses, to made them desperate.
Besides of that, the Japanese focus on the relationship between families. For example, it used a humour scene of father and daughter discussing the catastrophic scene of fire balls.
Click here to see larger trailer once more!
"Daddy, what was that?"The Japanese trailer shows the relationship between father and daughter at first. Then, it shows the family hug together and father said, "No matter what happens, we will all stay together". At the end, we can see a scene of father tried to save his daughter.
"Don't look at that! Just look at me! Do I look scared?"
"Umm!"
As "2012" is a movie of catastrophe, the catastrophic scenes are needed. However, the Japanese, unlike the US, it will focus more on the communication or the relationship of people. Also, it tried to portray the event in a tragic way.
US, representative of Western culture
Why I choose US as the representative of Western culture? It is simple, it is the main producer of movies, just like the Hollywood! The trailers' approach should be near the producers' notions.
After the scene of father and daughter, the major differences appears. In this US trailer, we can see that, it focused on the action scene more than relationship among people. Moreover, at the scene when the church collapse, it plays the sound effect of people scream, to made an attempt to scare audiences.
Click here to see larger trailer once more!
Then, it used superb background music and rapid scenes to attract audiences' attentions. Moreover, it focused on people's struggle against the Doom. For example, it shows the scene of President argues with others because of their different views. Then, we can see people stampede into the ship built by the government. At last, we can see some action scenes with scary music and the scene of family hug each other as a finale.
For the US trailer, it is evident that, it tend to use a technique of using scenes to overwhelm you and use a touching scene to end the trailer. It just like push you to the peak of the mountain, then push you down the mountain at last. This huge contrast may draw your desire and pay for it at the cinema.
2012 is a movie made by US, maybe we can see a movie made by Japan? Howl's moving castle! The first is from Japan and the latter is from US.
Poster from http://item.rakuten.co.jp/The difference between Japanese and US is more clear than the 2012 trailer. It is obvious that Japanese put emphasis on relationship of people and the daily life scene. On the contrast, US trailer focused on the action or splendid views, also, the romantic relationship between the main character and heroine, moreover, they often shows the heroic scene of main character.
Got it?
Japanese often use some scenes or trivia to imply the feelings of the characters, also focused on relationship of people. US mainly focused on the spectacular scenes or the rapid scenes. Both the culture could saw the same things differently, for instance, the "2012" church collapse scene, this may be scary in Americans eyes, but be sorrowful in Japanese eyes. If you want to know more of this phenomenon, maybe you can have a check of "High-context" and "Low-context" culture on books, this website or simply on Wikipedia!
Trailer is to catch audiences' attentions and boost their desire to pay for this movie, therefore it must suit for their own tastes and culture, otherwise it may lost its effect of attracting people. Therefore, we can simply see the major differences between cultures through movie trailers!
Read more!
2012 Official website
Howl's moving castle US official website
Wikipedia of High/Low context culture
Communicating Across Cultures - High/Low Context description
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