Directed by Yasujiro Ozu, Japan 1952
116 mins. Japanese dialogue with English sub-titles

The Flavour Of Green Tea Over Rice is one of Yasujiro Ozu's most beautiful domestic sagas, a subtly 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 clashes with the husband's small town simplicity, and a generational sea change in the form of their headstrong, modern niece sweeps over their household. Ozu's expert grasp of family dynamics receives one of its most spirited treatments, with a wry, tender humour and an expansiveness that moves the action from the home to a baseball stadium and the shops of post-war Tokyo.