Cha no aji (2004)

Director:

Katsuhito Ishii

Writer:

Katsuhito Ishii (writer)

Release Date:

20 April 2005 (France)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Plot:

A spell of time in the life of a family living in rural Tochigi prefecture, north of Tokyo. Though her husband is busy working at an office...

Plot Keywords:

Anime | Illustrator | Animation Filmmaking | Trespassing | Bus

Awards:

13 wins

Cast

Maya Banno	...	Sachiko Haruno - daughter
Takahiro Sato	...	Hajime Haruno - son
Tadanobu Asano	...	Ayano Haruno - uncle
Satomi Tezuka	...	Yoshiko Haruno - mother
Tatsuya Gashuin	...	Akira Todoroki - grandpa
Tomoko Nakajima	...	Akira Terako
Ikki Todoroki	...	Himself
Tomokazu Miura	...	Nobuo Haruno - father
Anna Tsuchiya	...	Aoi Suzuishi
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Saki Aibu	...	Hotaru
Hideaki Anno	...	Kasugabe
Keisuke Horibe	...	Man in Noodle Shop
Ryo Kase	...	Rokutaro Hamadayama
Rinko Kikuchi		(as Yuriko Kikuchi)
Kirin Kin	...	Grandma
Tsuyoshi Kusanagi	...	Projectionist
Ken'ichi Matsuyama	...	Young Man in Red T-Shirt
Shunichiro Miki
Kenji Mizuhashi	...	Maki Hoshino
Ryû Morioka
Yoshiyuki Morishita
Kaiji Moriyama	...	Dancer
Yûka Nomura	...	Woman in Noodle Shop
Yoshinori Okada	...	Omiya
Machiko Ono	...	CM Teacher
Daigaku Sekine	...	Detective
Kotaro Shiga
Issei Takahashi	...	Chairman of Go Club
Shinji Takeda	...	CM Director
Seiji Tanaka	...	CM Director
Yôji Tanaka
Susumu Terajima	...	Tattooed Man
Emi Wakui	...	Narrator (voice)

Also Known As:

The Taste of Tea (International: English title)

Runtime:

143 min | France:143 min (Cannes Film Festival) | Argentina:143 min (Mar del Plata Film Festival)

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Brazil:14 | Netherlands:MG6 | Argentina:Atp | South Korea:12

Company:

Grasshoppa

A must see movie!

Note: I am your classic American teenager, I love violent movies. So naturally I was one to show reluctance when a friend suggested that we go see this movie at the NYC underground Asian film festival. Needless to say from my summary I was not disappointed.

The first thing to say is I can not think of any other movie that is anything like this movie and although I did insult myself before I have quite good taste in movie and by violence I was more or less leaning towards Pulp Fiction and Clockwork Orange. A taste of tea is simply about a family. Each character in the family has a little conflict, and as any movie the conflict attempts to be resolved as the movie goes on. They aren't eccentric conflicts at first glance, but as the movie continues the complexity grows. Their stories are not very intertwined except for the fact that it is all the same family. Nevertheless there are moments that want to bring you to tears.

Despite all this I would not call the movie sappy to the least bit. The movie is full of crazy imagery and at the same time is quite comical. To say the least its light hearted. But during countless scenes the audience would burst out in laughter.

To finish up, this movie is an absolute must see. Find it, buy it, rent it, watch it. In an age where it is almost impossible to find a good movie I am surprised that this movie did not surface long ago.