Made the year before his career defining masterpiece, Tokyo Story,Flavour of Green Tea Over Rice is one of Yasujiro Ozu’s most beautiful domestic sagas, a subtly 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 clashes with the husband’s small town simplicity, and a generational sea change in the form of their headstrong, modern niece sweeps over their household.
Ozu’s expert grasp of family dynamics receives one of its most spirited treatments, with a wry, tender humour and an expansiveness that moves the action from the home, to the baseball stadiums and the shops of post-war Tokyo.
Extras
Re-mastered at 4K and presented in High Definition for the first time in the UK
Feature-length audio commentary by critic and Asian-cinema expert Tony Rayns
Alternative unrestored audio track
The Mystery of Marriage (1932, 34 mins): educational filmmaker and pioneering female director Mary Field draws peculiar and poignant parallels between the mating rituals of humans, animals and mould in this eccentric, entertaining educational film
The Good Housewife “In Her Kitchen” (1949, 9 mins): the fourth wall is shattered in this imaginative public information film, filled with good advice for kitchen users - whether they have a refrigerator or not
