On 7/8/2003 1:17 AM, Rodney Webster wrote:

> The broadcasting of Mr Bean on NHK started a underground, or cult 
> following for Rowan Atkinson and this show, which grew in parallel to 
> his increase in popularity in other countries.  By the time his movie 
> was released he was already fairly well known, especially amongst 
> Japanese "talent".

One of the things that has always struck me about Mr Bean is how 
"Japanese" he seems in some ways. He is a very inconsiderate person, yet 
is pathologically afraid of making a fool of himself in public 
situations. Tatemae and sekentei are extremely important to him.

That, and the fact that the original TV shows contained almost no 
dialog, made him a natural for export to Japan. Much more so than Monty 
Python, it seems to me.

Please note that in the above I am not trying to say that "the Japanese 
are inconsiderate" in a general sense. It's just that Mr Bean represents 
a personality type that most Japanese people will immediately recognize 
and even identify with to some extent. As a matter of fact, I suspect 
that the average Japanese audience may understand Mr Bean a lot better 
than the average American audience, and the completely wrongheaded 
approach of the Hollywood movie provides some evidence for this supposition.

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Scott Reynolds                                      sar@gol.com