"The movie is a family portrait as painted by a moderately demented Cubist: the family involved is nothing like yours, yet somehow, in its fractured way, exactly like yours." - Neil Genzlinger, The New York Times
"Ishii's domestic frame is as tightly packed and layered as his horizons are expansive." - Michelle Orange, Village Voice
"While there are multiple characters and all manner of oddball excursions, everything is anchored in a gentle, affectionate view of a household whose members are ever so slowly finding themselves. The tea that everybody drinks is warm and restorative, and so is Ishii’s strange, sentimental film." - Anton Bitel, Little White Lies
Opens June 26 | 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, mom is an eccentric artist who eschews household chores for an animation project with occasional help from crazy grandpa. Meanwhile dad is just your everyday hypnotherapist. Their teenaged son suffers from hangups about the opposite sex while his little sister must contend with a doppelganger. Uncle is a groovy music producer on a respite whose ghostly past experiences still haunt him. Maverick director Katsuhito Ishii 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 charming and effervescent movie full of surrealist suprises.
Awards & Nominations
2004 Cannes Director's Fortnight - Official Selection
2005 Fantasia Film Festival - Best Asian Film Winner
The Film Center is ADA accessible. This presentation will be projected without open captions. The theater is hearing-loop equipped. For accessibility requests, please email filmcenter@saic.edu