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Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice

Ochazuke no aji

Japan

1952

115 Min
Black and White
1.37:1
Japanese
  • Currently 4.2/5 Stars.
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DIR Yasujirô Ozu

SCR Kôgo Noda, Yasujirô Ozu

DP Yuuharu Utsata

CAST Shin Saburi, Michiyo Kogure, Koji Tsuruta, Chikage Awashima, Keiko Tsushima, Eijirô Yanagi, Kuniko Miyake, Kôji Shitara, Chishû Ryû, Yûko Mochizuki, Hisao Toake, Matsuko Shiga

ED Yoshiyasu Hamamura

MUSIC Ichirô Saitô

New York (Special Events)

Synopsis

Snobbish uptown lady Taeko is bored with her countrybred, taciturn husband Mokichi. She makes up lame lies to steal away with her friends to a hot spring resort, where she publicly dismisses him as “Mr Insensitive”. Their marital discord comes to a head when Taeko discovers that Mokichi was complicit in her niece’s walk-out from her arranged date. She runs off after having a fit over Mokichi’s uncouth eating habits, unaware that he will be posted overseas. But over a bowl of ochazuke, she comes to appreciate his down-to-earth philosophy. —Ozu-san.com

Director

Original

Yasujirô Ozu

Yasujiro Ozu was born in the old Fukagawa district of Tokyo, to a fertilizer merchant, in 1903. In 1923, after a couple of years as an assistant teacher in rural Japan, Ozu was hired as assistant cameraman at the Shochiku Motion Picture Company. Early in his career, Ozu began to experiment with an idiosyncratic film style that ran contrary to the conventions of Japanese or Hollywood cinema of the day. He strove to reduce and simplify his film style; he cast such mainstays as the fade, the dissolve, and the pan from his cinematic palette. He shot solely from a low camera angle, using a 50mm lens, and he subordinated spatial continuity to visual aesthetics. Ozu directed his first film in 1927,The Sword of Penitence. In 1932, he began to hit his creative stride with the touching comedy I Was Born, But…, which was his first commercial success. During World War II, he made few films such as There Was a Father.

After the war, Ozu reached his creative peak and made some of his finest… read more

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Eleni Ashton

29May12

This film sounds delicious - great title.

killingtime and DT like this

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Adam Suraf

5Nov11

Considering he was a lifelong bachelor, Ozu isn't the best director of marital trouble films (look to Naruse for that), but this lesser film, made between the masterpieces "Early Summer" and "Tokyo Story", about an arranged marriage on rocky grounds, is interesting nonetheless.

Matt Reddick likes this

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© <',))( Astro-Tofupraxographer

22Sep11

I burned my tongue yesterday and grew new taste buds today. This is probably the oddest film I've seen from Ozu-san, so much dynamic movement! Travelling shots in cars, in trains, of planes taking off, dolly shots in the house, it's almost overwhelming. Yet still a great portrayal of a middle of the road relationship reflecting on a new one about to form.

Matt Reddick and 3 others like this

Borges, H. K. ‡, Falderal

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Aflwydd

24Aug10

If we all understood ourselves as well as Ozu seems to understand us, the world would be a lot better off.

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Articles

Our roundup of essays and articles on this film.
W184

Chikage Awashima, 1924 - 2012

By David Hudson on February 16, 2012

Best known in the West for her work with Ozu, Awashima performed well into her 80s.

read article

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Reviews

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Beauty in simplicity

By Rohit on January 30, 2011

I am back to writing reviews and yet again, it happens to be an Ozu film. I guess it is because his films are so simple to comprehend and analyze that I can’t help but write at least a few words about…  read review

Forum

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Which director do you think had the best smelling farts?

9 posts by 5 people over 1 year ago