The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice is currently streaming on HBO Max and The Criterion Channel
The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice (1952)116 minDramaRating 60/100
One of the ineffably lovely domestic sagas made by Yasujiro Ozu at the height of his mastery, THE FLAVOR OF GREEN TEA OVER RICE is a sublimely piercing portrait of a marriage coming quietly undone. Secrets and deceptions strain the already tenuous relationship of a childless, middle-aged couple, as the wife’s city-bred sophistication bumps up against the husband’s small-town simplicity, and a generational sea change—in the form of her headstrong, modern niece—sweeps over their household. The director’s abiding concern with family dynamics receives one of its most spirited treatments, with a wry, tender humor and buoyant expansiveness that moves the action from the home into the baseball stadiums, pachinko parlors, and ramen shops of postwar Tokyo.
Cast: Shin Saburi, Michiyo Kogure, Koji Tsuruta, Chikage Awashima, Keiko Tsushima, EijirĹŤ Yanagi, Kuniko Miyake
Director: YasujirĹŤ Ozu