Sweet Bean

Sentaro runs a small dorayaki stand in Tokyo, selling the traditional Japanese cakes filled with sweet red bean paste. His shop is struggling, and he turns down a persistent older woman, Tokue, when she offers to help. After tasting the bean paste she makes herself, he reluctantly hires her, and her skill in preparing the paste draws customers from across the city. The two settle into an early-morning routine of cooking together. Tokue also becomes a quiet presence in the life of Wakana, a schoolgirl who regularly visits the stand. Yet Tokue is holding something back about her past, and when it comes to light, it affects the bond the three have formed.

Naomi Kawase directed and wrote the screenplay. Sweet Bean followed her films 3.11 A Sense of Home Films and Still the Water, and preceded Radiance, The Moon, True Mothers and Yakushima's Illusion. It is a Japanese, French and German co-production. Kirin Kiki plays Tokue, with Masatoshi Nagase as Sentaro and Kyara Uchida as Wakana. Etsuko Ichihara, Miki Mizuno and Miyoko Asada appear in supporting roles.

The film runs 113 minutes and was released in 2015. On IMDb it holds a rating of 7.4 from around 14,000 votes, and on TMDB a rating of 7.5 from roughly 620 votes. A critics' rating of 7.2 from 58 reviews places it close to the audience scores, indicating broadly similar assessments from reviewers and viewers.