Product Details

• Actors: The Taste of Tea
• Directors: n, a
• Format: Dolby, Limited Edition, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: Japanese
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: VIZ Pictures
• DVD Release Date: July 3, 2007
• Run Time: 237 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000PMGNMC
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #62,236 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Meet the Harunos, a rather unconventional, but happy and loving family nonetheless. They live in a small town in the mountains just out of Tokyo where life is good and quiet - but that doesn't mean they don't have their own little problems.

As 8-year old Sachiko (Maya Banno) tries to get rid of a giant version of herself who seems to pop up everywhere, her older brother Hajime (Takahiro Sato), privately wrestles with his love-struck heart. Meanwhile, their mother Yoshiko (Satomi Tezuka) is working hard, coming out of retirement as an animator, as her husband and professional hypnotist Nobuo (Tomokazu Miura) watches on with slight apprehension. Yoshiko's brother, Ayano (Tadanobu Asano) is just visiting his hometown and staying with the family, but also has ashidden agenda; he needs to come to terms with a romance that ended years ago. Even Nobuo's brother and successful manga artist Todoroki has his problems. It's his birthday soon and he wants to give himself something special. And lastly there's Grandpa, the most bizarre and perhaps the most perceptive of all, who continues to search for a better way to live life to the full.

Written, directed and edited by Katsuhito ISHII, The Taste of Tea is a unique and gentle family portrait tackling the universal themes of time, people and their lives.

DISC 1:
Feature: THE TASTE OF TEA
Director & Cast Profile
Japanese original trailers
VIZ Pictures Presents
Dolby Digital Audio

DISC 2:
Special Feature 1: Making of THE TASTE OF TEA
(90 MIN. Documentary with English Subtitles)
Speical Feature 2: Animation SUPER BIG (3 MIN.)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I Love This Movie, May 16, 2007

By	squeegee (brooklyn, new york) - See all my reviews

I saw this movie in the theater in New York City. It is the best movie I have seen in a long time. I was laughing until I was crying at some points, and at other moments utterly moved by the genuine sentiment and lyricism.
What a beautiful film...

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tastes....refreshing!, September 19, 2007

By	Daniel J. Hamlow (Narita, Japan) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

In comparison to his rough and tumble indie-feeling gangster flick, Samehada Otoko to Momoji Onna, despite having little or no plot, Ishii Katsuhito's Ocha No Aji is a more serene offering, with humour that alternates between subtle, visual, and wacky, drama, and quirky visuals. He introduces us to the Harunos, a family of five living in a nice house in the Tochigi Prefecture countryside.

The parents seem normal enough, anime artist mother Yoshiko trying to make a comeback, while her husband Nobuo is a hypnotist. The cute six-year old Sachiko is plagued by a giant double of herself that appears from time to time. Sometimes it is seen as a head popping out of the ground; other times, it gazes at her, lying on the playground looking in the classroom. One wonders if it symbolizes her fears.

The oldest child Hajime is a first year high school student who has a fear of women due to two incidents and the moving away of a classmate he wanted to confess his love to.
However, he is given a new lease on hope with the appearance of Suzuishi Aoi, a transfer student from Tokyo. His adolescent hormones are recharged, to the point that he bikes like a demon all the way back home instead of parking it near the train station like he normally does. Though low-key and shy, Hajime's my favourite character. It's simply heart-warming to see his joy when he finds a way to get closer to Aoi, by joining the go club, and when he waves at Aoi in the soaking rain--after swiftly tossing his umbrella before the bus door closes.

To say the grandpa is eccentric is like saying Bill Gates is rich. An old man with a funny face and a quiff of white hair standing up, he uses a tuning fork to make sure he is in tune, makes funny martial arts like poses as well as impromptu songs, and at one point, does a duet with Yoshiko's brother Ikki, an anime artist with a pudding bowl haircut, wearing cheesy Vegas style suits and singing a song titled "Yamayo!"--"Oh Mountain," the song's only lyric. Anything he does easily prompts a laugh.

Veteran actor Asano Tadanobu plays Uncle Ayano, a sound mixer who has come to the countryside to relax, but also to come to some closure with an ex-girlfriend. He tells his nephew and niece about his first outdoor sh^t in the forest as a kid, which somehow led to the ghost of a scary-looking yakuza to haunt him. Upon hearing how Ayano's doing a backflip led to the vanishing of the ghost, Sachiko thinks maybe that's the way to get rid of her double. There is a perfectly rational explanation for Ayano's story, which adds to the hilarity element. More hilarious is his reaction to the "Yamayo" song. The look on his disgusted face is like, "My god, this is so effed up," and he later says of Grandpa and Ikki, "They look like perverted aliens from another planet."

The appearance of Sachiko's double, the train coming out of Hajime's forehead, and two otakus who ride the train wearing ridiculously bulky costumes are just a few visual wonders in this film. If Suzuishi Aoi is familiar, that's because it's Anna Tsuchiya, who played the biker Ichigo in Shimotsuma Story--a.k.a. the inappropriately titled Kamikaze Girls. She's quieter in this film, with more of a natural beauty. Supporting roles include Anno Hideaki, best known for directing the Neon Genesis Evangelion anime.

Trivia: the station where Hajime and his father get off is Terauchi Station on the Moka Line. That is five stops from where I live! The place where Ishii shot his movie is Motegi City, whose station is the terminus of the Moka Line. Yet the train used is not the Moka train, but something specially designed for the movie. And the narrator of the film also has a role, as Mr. Haruno's patient at his clinic, and she's quite funny.

Maybe the rich refreshing flavour of green tea one savours is why this odd but pleasant film is titled such, because it sure refreshed me!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Surreal Life, August 13, 2008

By	Zack Davisson "All Good Things" (Seattle, WA, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

It is hard to put a finger on what exactly is so great about "The Taste of Tea" ("Cha no Aji"). There is no real story to speak of, the movie drifts from one bizarre instance to another, and becomes just a hodge-podge of small vignettes vaguely connected by a circumstance of family. A bit like real life, I suppose, but without the bleeding ghosts and giant girls.

What ever it is, "The Taste of Tea" is a great flick. Director Ishii Katsuhito (Party 7) has put together a modern version of an Ozu film, focusing on tiny family dramas that anyone could encounter and making them the focus. No grand drama, no heroes and villains, just life. Everything focuses around the Haruno family, with each member having a story to tell. Effects are used to create the surreal atmosphere, but never overpower the story. An American equivalent would be Big Fish, which also combines the nostalgic with the surreal.

The ensemble cast is pure quality, each of them stars of the Japanese film industry. Asano Tadanobu (Kakihara from Ichi the Killer) plays a younger brother who needs time with his family to recuperate from lost love. Tezuka Satomi (Isola) plays the mother, a woman who has given up her career as an animator to raise her family, but wants to break back in now that her children are older. Gashuin Tatsuya (Spirited Away) is amazing as the unhinged grandfather, a man with an artist's soul and the innocence of a child. Anno Hideaki, creator of Neon Genesis Evangelion, even pops in for a cameo role.

The scenery of rural Japan is also beautifully filmed, and is enough to make you nostalgic for it even if you have never been there. All the sites and sounds are perfect, with vivid colors crisp and alive. I have spent some time in rural Japan, and "The Taste of Tea" made me want to chuck my job, pack a suitcase, and head back to the mountains and rice fields and just soak up the lifestyle.

This limited edition of the DVD is worth getting picking up over the regular one if you can. A two-disk collection, there is a subtitled 90-min "Making of" feature, as well as the full version of the animation "Super Big" which was featured in the movie.