The Taste of Tea

The Haruno family lives in a small mountain town outside Tokyo, and Katsuhito Ishii's 2004 film follows them through a stretch of ordinary days. Yoshiko, the mother, is drawn back to work on an animated film after time away from it. Her husband Nobuo, who practices therapeutic hypnosis, watches this return with some unease. Their teenage son Hajime is struggling with his first feelings for a classmate, while his younger sister Sachiko is preoccupied by a giant version of herself that seems to follow her. An eccentric grandfather and an uncle visiting from the city round out the household, and the film moves between their separate small stories rather than building toward a single drama.

Ishii wrote and directed the film himself, working with producers Kazuto Takida and Kazutoshi Wadakura. The cast includes Maya Suzuno as Sachiko, Takahiro Sato as Hajime, Tadanobu Asano as the uncle Ayano, Satomi Tezuka as Yoshiko, Tomokazu Miura as Nobuo and Tatsuya Gashuin, among thirty-one credited performers. The film runs 143 minutes and blends comedy and drama with touches of fantasy.

On TMDB it holds a rating of 7.6 out of 10 from 179 votes, a warm response from a modest number of viewers.