Credited cast: | |||
Haru Kuroki | ... | Noriko | |
Mikako Tabe | ... | Michiko | |
Kirin Kiki | ... | Teacher Takeda | |
Rest of cast listed alphabetically: | |||
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Mayu Harada | ... | Tadoroko |
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Saya Kawamura | ... | Sanae |
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Fuyuka Kooriyama | ... | Noriko's Mother |
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Chihiro Okamoto | ... | Noriko's Brother |
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Megumi Takizawa | ... | Yumiko |
Shingo Tsurumi | ... | Noriko's Father | |
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Mayu Tsuruta | ... | Yukino |
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Mizuki Yamashita | ... | Hitomi |
Noriko is a university student. By her mother's recommendation, Noriko begins attending a Japanese tea ceremony near her house with her cousin Michiko. There, Noriko learns from Teacher Takeda. Noriko now has the Japanese tea ceremony in her life and it's there for her during moments when she is sad or happy.
This is a movie in which life is a bowl of green tea. The Japanese tea ceremony becomes a philosophical and ritualistic approach to honor, to respect, to become harmonious and exacting as a mirrored counter part of the cyclical and seasonal changes in life where things are repetitive and yet imperceptibly different as time goes by. There is a moment in the film in which the camera seemingly detached itself from the story and zooms into the level of pulsating cells of a leaf. That out of context moment is exactly what this film is about. Life!