Distance to the gesture

I saw a Japanese film "Departures". That's brilliant. I felt the view of life and death in Japanese and the Greek was so close.
Once my Greek friend told me. Is it true there is similarity in the thought between Japanese and Greek with thousands miles distance each other? Well, it can be a kind of universal thought, the the view of life and death. That's why the film won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film over different cultures and languages.

There are two thoughts. One is "People in the world are basically all different". The other is "People are same wherever they live" I'm on the later. If not so, I could not visit the strange place and talk to strange people. Because I'm such a coward person.
However talking about smaller things, like gesture, action or character, those are various among each place where they live. Finding the difference is a little fun to me during travel. The view of life and death I mentioned before is fundamental thing. But what I'm talking is more superficial matter. I've watched the model's gestures all over the planet through the camera finder. So I have my own view.
For instance, my Senegalese friend in NY always tapped the forehead with his clenched fist when he got problem. It's a strange gesture to me. Although when I actually visited Senegal, I saw exact same gesture by the local people on the passenger seat of the car which was captured by traffic jam. I grinned.

The difference of gesture can be proportional to the distance where each people lives in. That's my theory. So for me, grew up in Japan, the gesture of East Asian people is more familiar.
Now look at today's photo. I photographed it in Rajshahi, west Bangladesh. I took a portrait of girls, maybe high school students. At the moment I hold to ready my camera, a girl got being bashful. The gesture made me recall I was still in east Asia. I got similar reaction in China or Vietnam. Meanwhile, I've never had the gesture in India or Iran. Of course the difference is seamless. No clear border. Actually Rajshai is next to Indian border.

In Japan, there is a "Reaction Comedian". The stooge guy who is teased and makes one exaggerated reaction for it to allure the audience's laugh. I think that's quite skillful. Is that possible make the people over the world laughing with just one funny reaction? Yeah, maybe Mr. Bean made it.
I'll tell you my experience about it. I was in some town of Canada. My Japanese friend was surprised rounding her eyes and said "Aaah, Bikkurshita (I was frightened, in Japanese)" As watching it Canadians with us laughed. They were so interested in the reaction and asked us to repeat it. We ended up repeating "Aaah, Bikkurishita" a hundred of times. Hey gime a break!
"So, what's the laughing fit?" I asked them. They explained "Firstly the strange sound of the words, secondly the facial expression with speaking the words" Well no one can expect which action makes the people laugh. I felt that Canada was really far from Japan.
Meanwhile Korean has a similar expression, I remember.