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

There is life in Tochigi.

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?