Watch The Taste of Tea For Free

You won't be disappointed!

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Absolutely the worst movie.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Family movies. I’m not talking about the Disney or Pixar variety but the family ensemble film, depicting the various lives of an often eccentric clan from the inside out. While Ingmar Bergman’s “Fanny and Alexander” and Yasujiro Ozu’s “Tokyo Stories” are hailed as the standards, Katsuhito Ishii provides his take on the genre with a most accessible and surprising piece of cinema: “The Taste of Tea.” Probably best known in the U.S. as the guest director of the anime segment in Kill Bill vol.1, Ishii has written and directed films (“Party 7” and “Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl”) that feature outrageous gangsters influenced by Tarantino, Japanese Manga and Anime, and the Hong Kong gun-fu flicksYou can imagine the level of expectations Ishii encountered when he introduced “The Taste of Tea” to the unsuspecting public – all low - whether you were familiar with his work or underwhlemed by the title. Ishii reveals in his third movie outing that he has grown as a filmmaker and much like the clichéd franchise films of the ‘80s – this time it’s personal.We are introduced to the Haruno family, living pastoral lives in their cozy, open-air home in the country. But underneath the placid surface each member of the family faces their own demons.Teenage son Hajime (a hilarious Takahiro Sato) takes the Jason Biggs role of the obsessive, horny Romeo who longs for love as seen with his frequent pillow and blanket dry-humping.Mother (Satomi Tezuka) runs the household while working on her dream Anime epic.Father (Tomokazu Miura) fights the malaise of work by using his hypnotherapy skills on his family.Grandad (Tatsuya Gashuin) provides the non-stop laughs at the expense of his unibrow, his childlike quirkiness, his tendency to sing about whatever he sees, and unfortunately his senility. The restless uncle (The Japanese Johnny Depp - Tadanobu Asano) is a talented record producer who somehow is sidetracked by a lack of closure in his life.Finally, little Sachiko (an adorable Maya Banno)cannot concentrate at school or home because of a bizarre recurring haunting: a gigantic 60-foot image of herself.Immediately we’re brought into Ishii’s surreal world with David Lynch (“Twin Peaks”) / Pierre Jeunet (“Amelie”) visuals that add to the inner conflicts of each family member. And love is what you’ll feel for the characters that you’ll come to know. Ishii never has to rely on melodrama to get us to sympathize with their individual plights. It’s all in the details. You hope against reason that they can all achieve their dreams. Not because they’re so wacky, so eccentric, or even lovable, but as strange as these characters are Ishii reveals a humbling moment which brings the character back to earth and into our hearts. See the movie with someone you really care for.

I watched this film as part of a sort of "move binge" I was having and as such the true beauty of the film was somewhat dulled in my mind as I went directly from watching one movie, to watching it, to watching another. However, after reflecting on it and then watching it a second time I really can say that this movie is quite good. As many others that have commented have mentioned, it's not particularly "exciting" in a traditional movie sense; but the aesthetic quality of the scenes, along with the superb acting job done by the main characters and the creativity of the story make it a very good film. The reason I chose to watch the film in the first place was largely due to the fact that I'm a big Tadanobu Asano fan and I saw he was in it. He isn't really that major of a character in the movie (no one really is) so don't expect any kind of outstanding performance from him. Don't get me wrong, he plays his role very well, but everyone's role in the film is somewhat muted, as that is the overall mood of the film in a way.

A truly beautiful film full of wonderful imagery and comic moments that made the almost 2 and a half hours fly past. It really needs to be seen in a cinema where you can totally integrate yourself in the atmosphere and you feel like a fly on the wall, watching the family and their situations without interrupting their flow. Visually nature plays a huge role, not just the human side of it (which is simple and uncomplicated) but the countryside, the river, the wind, the cherry blossoms, the rain etc etc. It really is beautifully filmed and the characters are all very touching, very funny and very normal really (except perhaps the psychedelic singing uncle),in their own quirky little ways. There isn't a real story line, we just follow the family over a seemingly short period of time. Some moments in the film may seem relevant and some may not, but they all do seem to fit in somewhere along the way and they are all such a pleasure to watch. I came out of the cinema feeling as though my karma was on a high and I still do.

Just some information concerning director Katsuhito Ishii. Cha no Aji is his third feature, he's also an established music video and commercial director. Through his association with Grasshoppa, a production company in Tokyo launched over two years ago, he's also directed several short films, including works in animation. He collaborated with Quentin Tarantino on the anime sequence in Kill Bill vol.1. Cha no Aji shows how an urban family has made the move to the countryside, managing to keep an active, stimulating life, a theme explored by several young directors from Japan. Ishii succeeds in merging the traditional plots of the Japanese family drama with the creative eccentricity of Tokyo trends. Although indie star Tadanobu Asano has appeared in all of Ishii's films, the director's secret weapon is Tatsuya Gashuin, another Ishii regular, who plays the part of the grandfather, a former manga master. Why Katsuhito Ishii's films haven't released overseas remains a mystery...Nobody knows?