The Taste of Tea

I've been having a lot of fun watching Japanese films. I'd begun to see a few themes emerge (life in Tokyo vs. rural life, connection with nature, connection with community, and, unexpected to me, a fascination with music and dance). Then I popped Cha no Aji (The Taste of Tea) into the DVD player and was dropped into a whole new experience of Japanese culture.

In a way The Taste of Tea was more what I was expecting out of a Japanese film: characters who are anime artists, bizarre events of the type I'd expect to see animated in a manga. When these fantastic elements are combined with an exploration of what it means to be human, the result is a film that can look at disappointment and loss with a gentle playfulness.

I had heard The Taste of Tea called a "surreal" version of Ingmar Bergman. Maybe its the last vestiges of my Midwestern upbringing, but I'd say Bergman has his own claim to surreal. I'd call the Taste of Tea a "happy" Bergman. It's an oversimplification, but where Bergman plays with his idea of what it means to be human on the dramatic stage of the creepy and macabre, The Taste of Tea approaches the same theme with childlike excess and humorous fantasy.