The pristine image of the Japanese family is turned on its uber-polite head with surreal aplomb in this far out collection of hilarious vignettes. Set in the languid countryside, matriarch Yoshiko (Satomi Tezuka) is an eccentric artist who eschews household chores for an animation project with occasional help from crazy grandpa (Tatsuya Gashuin, whose eyebrows are something to behold). Meanwhile patriarch Nabuo (Japanese character actor Tomokazu Miura of House, Typhoon Club, Outrage, and tons of others) is just your everyday hypnotherapist. Their teenaged son Hajime (Takahiro Sato) suffers from hangups about the opposite sex while his little sister Sachiko (Maya Banno) must contend with a giant doppelganger. Uncle Ayano (Tadanobu Asano, of TV’s Shogun, Scorsese’s Silence, and Takashi Miike’s Ichi the Killer) is a groovy music producer on a respite whose ghostly past experiences still haunt him. Maverick director Katsuhito Ishii (director of Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl and creator the animated sequence in K*ll Bill: Volume 1) pulled out all the stops for this endearing outré take on the Japanese psyche. Replete with non-stop irreverent gags, anime digressions, musical numbers and candy-coated lysergic passages, The Taste of Tea is, “a true delight that elevates feel-good cinema to a whole new level and charms from start to finish” (Screen Anarchy).
In Japanese with English subtitles.
Event Venue
Winifred Moore Auditorium @ Webster University, 470 E Lockwood Ave,Webster Groves,MO,United States
Tickets
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