The Taste of Tea

Katsushito Ishii's film The Taste of Tea (2004) has often been called very Ozu-like. The comparison isn't completely appropriate even though the focus of the film is on a family - and the film reminds me of Ozu's slice-of-life films. Surely there are patterns that can be found in Ozu's films, but Ishii breaks these patterns completely once in a while for the sake of the story. The result is what would happen if Ozu made a film in the noughties - after taking some LSD. Personally, I would also like to compare Ishii to Akira Kurosawa because he seems to be able to create wonderful characters effortlessly.

The Taste of Tea is a story of a contemporary Japanese family. The father of the family (Tomokazu Miura) is a hypnotherapist who works far away from the home; the mother (Satomi Tezuka) is an animator making a comeback to the business; the eldest child, Hajime (Takahiro Sato), is socially a bit withdrawn and throughout the film he struggles with expressing love; the younger child, Sachiko (Maya Banno), has a problem with a gigantic version of herself who keeps haunting her all the time; the peculiar grandpa (Tatsuya Gashuin) spends his days by drawing and coming up with the "coolest" battle poses; the uncle (Tadanobu Asano) - who works as a sound mixer - also lives with the rest of the family. Each of the characters has a clear storyline, but Ishii's (slightly) fragmented narrative makes the film seem more like a slice-of-life portrayal of a family.

Ishii succeeds at creating a vivid picture of a family's everyday life which is full of tiny details. Then there are moments when he switches the tone to be extremely surreal (like in this song sequence) which break the film's harmony. Sometimes the effect is good (like the uncle's story of his first "outdoor shit"); sometimes these moments make the film fall apart (a sequence involving a HUUUUUGE flower). In general, it does bring more delightful details into the everyday life of the family members. While the film focuses vaguely on family life in general, there is a significant amount of content featuring anime's effect on Japanese people. Ishii masterfully observes both the animators and the otakus as if he was an outsider and an insider AT THE SAME TIME. I'm not sure how he pulled that off, but it works well.

The film's form is more obviously Ozu-like: long takes, nice framing and the habit of revisiting earlier compositions. But when the film's content becomes surreal, the form goes crazy as well - as it should. Ishii's use of music is fascinating as well because there is such huge diversity in the soundtrack.

While The Taste of Tea is a slightly flawed and confusing film, it is immensely entertaining and insightful. The way Ishii combines minimalism and absurdism is interesting and promising.

Score: 8 out of 10