AKA: Cha no Aji
Country and Year: Japan (2004)
Director: Katsuhito Ishii
Starring: Tadanobu Asano, Maya Banno, Takahiro Sato, Tatsuya Gashuin

Review By: David Austin
Rating: 4 out of 4 stars (great)

The Taste of Tea is a whimsical, lovely movie about the members of a strange family and their concerns, fantasies and relationships. I can’t say it truly breaks new ground, but the surrealistic flights of fancy are a welcome touch to the genre, and the incidents of the family’s life are treated with such tenderness, wit and charm, that it is hard not to fall a little bit in love with the Todorokis.

The Taste of Tea is set in a small, rural town, and primarily follows the Todoroki family over the course of a summer. All the family members are distinct individuals, though the primary focus is on the two young children. Maya Banno, who plays the daughter, Sachiko, is simply adorable without ever becoming cloying, and Ishii coaxes a fine performance out of her. Sachiko, though haunted (or perhaps annoyed is the better word) by visions of her onlooking giant self, never for a moment feels like less than a real girl. Hajime (Takahiro Sato) is a shy and introverted teenager, who alternates between being obsessed by girls and frightened by them. Two scenes with Hajime: one in which he can’t contain his excitement at the idea of sharing a hobby with the new girl in school, and another in which some other students try to play a prank on him, are great examples of the light touch with which Ishii handles his material.

The rest of the clan have large roles as well. The mother and father (Satomi Tezuka and Tomokazu Miura) are the calm center of the family, as best exhibited by the father’s job as a hypnotherapist. Tadanobu Asano plays Uncle Ayano, a v-e-r-y mellow guy who comes to visit, and spends much of his time telling stories, napping, and catching up with old acquaintances. Early on, the always excellent Asano establishes his character through a long and frequently hilarious story about his childhood, featuring the equally ubiquitous Susumu Terajima in a cameo as the angry ghost of a yakuza in a rather humiliating predicament (Terajima is one of those actors you’ve probably seen a million times but still don’t know the name of. He’s in most Takashi Miike, Takeshi Kitano and Sabu films, and frankly, pretty much everything else).

The two most broadly played characters (and possibly the funniest) are the grandfather and the mother’s brother. The brother-in-law is a prissy manga artist with ambitions to become a singer, ambitions that dovetail nicely with the obsessions of Grandpa (Tatsuya Gashuin), who composes odes to his bathwater and spends much of his time creating geriatric dance moves that would probably cause Madonna to have an epileptic seizure. Grandpa, with his madman’s hair, physical contortions, and bizarre mannerisms is probably the film’s most outlandish creation.

Considering that it is a meandering two and half hours long, and has no real plot to speak of, it is a true testament to the skill of Ishii and the cast that film is so consistently enjoyable. More a series of sketches and vignettes than anything else, Taste of Tea is constantly exploring the rabbit holes of its character’s imaginations. The movie also has a tendency to veer off on crazy tangents into the lives of those who cross the main characters’ paths. Even background characters clearly have a lot going on, like the school groundskeeper who practices Chinese swordplay in the recess yard, the poetry-loving assistant principal, or the cosplay enthusiasts (anime fans who dress up like their favorite characters) that father and son encounter on the train. What makes all this randomness work so well is the Ishii’s willingness to simply let his characters be. He does not explain their peculiarities, and frequently does not even focus on them. It is a welcome change from such Hollywood fare as You Can’t Take It With You, in which Capra all but rubs the audience’s nose in his characters’ peculiarities.

It is a surprising film coming from Ishii, director of the amusing but vapid gangster/road movie Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl, and the universally reviled (but unseen by me) Party Seven. Many are comparing Taste of Tea, with its static shots, focus on family and plotless narratives, to Ozu. The comparisons do not really hold up in my opinion, as the bold step into surrealism and generally non-melancholic tone strongly distinguishes Taste of Tea from Ozu’s oeuvre. To the extent that the spirit of the film is similar to Ozu, it is to the Ozu of Good Morning, charming and sprightly.

The only flaw I can find with this movie is an ever-so-subtle sense of being manipulated. I’ve seen enough “lovable misfit family” movies, and “magical realist town” movies, like My Life as a Dog and La Belle Epoque, to know how this particular type of film functions, alternately playing on the heartstrings and the funnybone, and injecting subtle lessons. However, this is such a superior example of the subgenre, and so thoroughly enjoyable, that I am inclined to ignore that nagging feeling.

If it wasn’t too early in Ishii’s career, I would call The Taste of Tea his masterpiece. As it is, I look forward to a lot more from a director who has suddenly and unexpectedly shown himself to be quite a talent.

Recommended? Highly, to everyone but the angriest misanthrope. If this one does not get US distribution, I give up all hope that any logic guides the movie industry’s decisions on what films to release here.

If you like this, you might like: Good Morning, My Life as a Dog, Happiness of the Katakuris, Amelie, Delicatessen, Tampopo

© David Austin