The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice (1952)

[Scottie]

One of the ineffably lovely domestic sagas made by Yasujiro Ozu at the height of his mastery, The Flavor of Green Tea over Rice is 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 bumps up against the husband’s small-town simplicity, and a generational sea change—in the form of their headstrong, modern niece—sweeps over their household. The director’s abiding concern with family dynamics receives one of its most spirited treatments, with a wry, tender humor and buoyant expansiveness that moves the action from the home into the baseball stadiums, pachinko parlors, and ramen shops of postwar Tokyo.

SPECIAL FEATURES

New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray

What Did the Lady Forget?, a 1937 feature by director Yasujiro Ozu

New interview with film scholar David Bordwell

Ozu & Noda: Tateshina Diaries, a new documentary by Daniel Raim on Ozu’s relationship with longtime screenwriter Kogo Noda

New English subtitle translation

PLUS: An essay by scholar Junji Yoshida

New cover by Katherine Lam

https://www.criterion.com/films/2822...-tea-over-rice