Trailers
Description
A spell of time in the life of the five-piece Haruno family in rural Tochigi Prefecture. Yoshiko is not an ordinary housewife, instead working on an animated film project. Uncle Ayano, a successful music producer, is looking to get his head together after living in Tokyo. Meanwhile, Sachiko is concerned with why she seems to be followed by a giant version of herself. As the lazy days pass by, each member of the family is followed in a series of episodic vignettes.
Starring
Awards
Key opinion
The Taste of Tea is a surreal, kaleidoscopic exploration of a rural Japanese family’s eccentric everyday life. While admirers celebrate its playful, whimsical charm and artistic freedom, skeptics argue that its lack of a coherent narrative and structural logic results in an aimless viewing experience.
| Acting | The ensemble cast provides anchor-points of humanity and sincerity that elevate the film’s more abstract and bizarre moments. | |
| Originality | The film functions as a vibrant, surreal collage of disparate genres and visual styles, embracing an "anything goes" creative philosophy. | |
| Screenplay | The narrative is intentionally fragmented and devoid of traditional plot structure, favoring a series of vignettes over a unified story. | |
| Pacing | The film’s leisurely, contemplative tempo is experienced by some as a beautiful, meditative rhythm, while others find it to be aimless and lacking in momentum. | |
| Theme | The surreal imagery, such as the giant sunflowers and recurring visual hallucinations, is seen by some as a whimsical "thing-in-itself," while others find these elements lack sufficient underlying thematic depth. |