#989: OZU, Yasujiro: The Flavor Of Green Tea Over Rice (1952)

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OZU, Yasujiro (Japan)
The Flavor Of Green Tea Over Rice [1952]
Spine #989
Blu-ray


One of the ineffably lovely domestic sagas made by Yasujiro Ozu at the height of his mastery, The Flavor of Green Tea over Rice is a sublimely 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 bumps up against the husband's small-town simplicity, and a generational sea change — in the form of her headstrong, modern niece — sweeps over their household. The director's abiding concern with family dynamics receives one of its most spirited treatments, with a wry, tender humor and buoyant expansiveness that moves the action from the home into the baseball stadiums, pachinko parlors, and ramen shops of postwar Tokyo.

116 minutes
Black & White
Monaural
in Japanese
1:37:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2019
Director/Writers


Script by Kogo Noda and Yasujiro Ozu.

A

Film Rating (0-60):

60

The Extras

 The Booklet

Ten-page wraparound featuring an essay by scholar Junji Yoshida.

Commentary

None.

1937 feature

What Did the Lady Forget?

Video essay

By film scholar David Bordwell.

Ozu & Noda

A documentary by Daniel Raim on Ozu’s longtime collaboration with screenwriter Noda.

Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

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