Telluride Film Fest Cinematheque: “Taste of Tea,” 4/9

26 Mar Telluride Film Fest Cinematheque: “Taste of Tea,” 4/9

The Telluride Film Festival’s Cinematheque at the Telluride Library presents another installment of its Contemporary Japanese Cinema series. The feature on Monday, April 9, 6 p.m., is THE TASTE OF TEA/CHA NO AJI, (2004, unrated, 143 minutes). 

Please scroll down to watch the trailer.

From Hayao Miyazaki to Yoji Yamada, from animation to samurai film to the surreal, this installment of  Telluride Film Fest’s Cinematheque is a four-part series explores the landscape of contemporary Japanese Cinema and the impact it has had on the world of film. 

The series continues in April with Katsuhito Ishii’s The Taste Of Tea (Cha No Aji), a selection at the 2004 the Cannes Film Festival and referred to as the “surreal” version of Ingmar Bergman’s Fanny and Alexander (1982).  

Director Ishii examines the eccentric Haruno family who reside in a quiet countryside village just north of Tokyo. The tranquil clan of five is transformed when visiting uncle Ayano (Tadanobu Asano), a successful movie producer, arrives in town.

As the summer progresses, each member of the family is revealed in a series of episodic vignettes, from offbeat grandfather, Akira (Tatsuya Gashuin); to artistic mother, Yoshiko (Satomi Tezuka); to hypno-therapist father, Nobou (Tomokazu Miura), who practices his trade on his family; to the children who are navigating their paths to young adulthood.

“Quirky with a capital Q,” wrote the San Francisco Chronicle.

“The most charming comedy in town,” wrote the Chicago Tribune, “Writer-director-editor Katsuhito Ishii’s 2004 piece is a modern Japanese variation on (Frank Capra’s 1938 Academy Award-winning) ‘You Can’t Take It With You,’ with some lovely fantastical flourishes.”