THE TASTE OF TEA Review
Wow. Can The Taste of Tea really be a film by the same man responsible for the atrocious Party 7? After a promising debut with Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl director Katsuhito Ishii took an enormous step back with Party 7 - a noisy, pointless, vapid film so bad that even the normally reliable Tadanobu Asano is virtually unwatchable. After that film received a sound critical roasting Ishii took a break of several years from live action film making, returning to the anime world that was his original home. And, frankly, nobody particularly missed him.
And then word began to circulate about The Taste of Tea. Ishii’s third live action feature began to do the international festival circuit and the word was universally positive, glowing even. The footage that made it to the web was fantastic. And now, having finally had the chance to see the film I have to say that this is a completely unexpected masterpiece, a glowing, quietly absurd yet emotionally profound film about the value of family.
My personal theory is that Ishii’s first two films were the product of a man insecure in his own abilities, uncertain whether the stories he had were worth telling or if the characters had sufficient depth and so he compensated by jamming them full of plot, full of action, full of very strange people doing very strange things hoping that if he kept the pace up people would simply be swept along and appreciate the films as a fun ride. With his debut he generally made the correct choices and so, yes, it is a fun ride. In Party 7 he made virtually every wrong choice humanly possible and ended up with a film that made me want to claw out my eyes. With The Taste of Tea, however, Ishii shows a poise and maturity that is not even remotely hinted at in his earlier work. He has taken the opposite approach here and made a quiet film that is almost entirely about character with absolutely minimal plot and rather than having his characters driven by the stylistic flourishes – which was very definitely the case in his first two efforts – what flourishes there are exist purely to bolster and expand the characters and their relationships to each other.
Told in a series of quiet vignettes The Taste of Tea follows the Harume family over the course of one summer. There is Hajime, the high school aged son, dealing with the hormone fueled angst of the girl he had a crush on – and never told – moving out of town. There is Sachiko, the primary school aged daughter, who feels haunted by a much larger version of herself. Yoshiko, the mother, is trying to re-establish herself as an anime artist after taking years off to raise her family. Nobuo, the father, is a caring man who finds the bulk of his time consumed by his work as a hypno-therapist. Ayano – the Tadanobu Asano role – is Yoshiko’s brother, a successful music producer, spending the summer at the family’s rural home for a vacation, where he also confronts his feelings towards an ex-girlfriend who has gotten married since he left. Then there’s Grandpa. Slightly crazy Grandpa who seems to exist in an odd little world all his own. I very nearly fell off the couch when he began to sing a song in praise of his bath water. Also in the mix, though out on the fringes, is Nobuo’s brother, a successful manga artist.
And that’s pretty much it, really. There are no major crises. No particular goals. Just this family living their lives. It takes a lot of confidence to make this sort of film, even more skill to make one work, and Ishii obviously, suddenly and unexpectedly has both in spades. By the end of the film you will know these people. You feel happy for their small triumphs, pain for their losses.
The film itself is beautifully crafted. The cinematography is excellent and the use of CG effects – often in play as Ishii uses effects sequences to bring his characters’ inner lives out into the open – blended in perfectly. He manages to even make the obligatory anime sequence – he is, after all, an anime artist himself and every film he has done so far has featured at least a small dose – fit tightly and organically into the narrative. His actors all put in brilliant performances, giving each of the characters – yes, even the wacky grandfather – a sense of depth that ensures the film never strays from it’s emotional core even during the most heavily stylized or comedic moments. And, yes, for all the talk of this being a quiet and subtle film you will laugh aloud several times.
One warning note to make: I have the Japanese two disc release of the film, which features an excellent transfer and flawless subtitles, but it also managed to greatly confuse my DVD player, which initially did not recognize it as valid DVD media. The film would not play until I had first loaded up a different R2 DVD in my player, thus resetting the internal region code, and then inserted the Taste of Tea DVD. It could be an early sign that my player is wearing down, yes, but this is the first and only DVD that has ever made it behave this way, so it is most likely a player compatibility issue.
