This film was released in 1999 and became very popular all over the world. In this film, Japanese-ness appears in three scenes.
１．a poster of a young Japanese woman hangs on the wall of the room.
- a Japanese restaurant, where an actress eats a highly paid meal with a chopstick
- a Japanese businessman is imitating gaijin(English men in this case) in a well-paid hotel.
In other words, there are cute girls, good Japanese food, and businessmen imitating gaijin. This is the image of the Japanese.
The main character (Hugh Grant) lives with a male friend. They are close but not homosexual. They are both single. On the wall of their apartment is a large poster of a young Japanese woman in a furisode kimono. We do not know where they obtained it. But by this poster, we can see that Japanese women are cute and ideal for single men.
The other is a world famous actress (Julia Roberts) who becomes good friends with the main character, and this is a setting that overlaps with her in real life, but she and he go on a date into a high-priced restaurant. This is a Japanese restaurant. In London, Japanese food is popular and coveted. Both of them eat with chopsticks.
Finally, there is a Japanese businessman who is staying at the Ritz luxury hotel. And what a surprise, it is an actor who seems to be an Indian! They think that since they are Asian, they are no different from the rest of us. The next part is interesting.
In the movie, the main character and his friends are so happy that they kiss a hotel clerk who is kind to them.
Then a Japanese businessman who was standing nearby kisses him as well. Since both gaijin kissed, he thought it would be polite to do so.
Here their view of the Japanese is clearly shown. This is a British film, but the setting is a corner of Notting Hill in London. Many Japanese have visited London since Soseki’s time. Even today, there are as many Japanese living in London as in New York. This must be the general impression of such Japanese people.
(I visited the bookstore in 2008. The actual store was cleaner than in the movie. The main character’s apartment was torn down. Quite a few of people must have visited the store. However, perhaps it was because eight years had passed, but there was nothing in the souvenir stores that showed any sign of the movie.)
