The Taste of Tea, a cute-beautiful movie about a quirky family

I just watched a movie called The Taste of Tea. The director is Katsuhito Ishii, and starring actors include Tadanobu Asano from Ichi the Killer and Rinko Kikuchi from Babel. It's about a quirky family living in rural Tochigi and their little obsessions — the dad with his hypnotherapy, the grandpa with his dance moves, the son with his teenager hormones and the adorable little daughter who is convinced that she'll be able to rid her life of a giant spirit of herself that follows her around everywhere if she can perfect a backflip.

The Taste of Tea is full of charming little anecdotes — my favorite was the one in which an uncle recalls the story of how he pooped on a giant egg while wandering around in a haunted forest. Such a great story within a story. The film is several years old, but it got high acclaim at film fests and I recommend it as part of your Japanese movie collection.

Get The Taste of Tea on Amazon

Comments

[twitter.com/harto]

Just started reading your blog. I found it after I read the Nisan and Nemutan rubbu-rubbu article. Fascinating.

Anyway, I've owned Taste of Tea for a while now and I'm always trying to convince people to watch it with me. Glad to know its got some other fans!

[nskripchun]

Definitely a great movie, quirky movie. The ending was nice, if a little tear-jerky when grandpa's antics are finally revealed.

[twitter.com/sonik_br]

I love this movie.
It's one of my favorite japanese movies, along with Survive Style 5+ (with Tadanobu Asano too).

[Moogly_bear]

I love this movie! "Why are you a triangle? Why are you a triangle?" XD

[www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=619752987]

I totally watched this b/c of Mia! She said it reminded her of my family. And she was right. I still have Yama yo Yama yo in my head.

[twitter.com/AverageGeek]

Picked up the movie from the local library and watched it last night. Loved it. As previous posters indicated, a quirky movie. I really loved the extended shots of the landscape, forrests etc.

Thanks for the tip!

[twitter.com/metafus]

I love this movie. it is one of my favorites, another movie by the same director is funky forest