The Taste of Tea / 茶の味 (2004)
One of the best films I’ve seen in a long time, actually. It’s by the same director (Katsuhito Ishii) as the sublimely ridiculous and disturbing tripfest Funky Forest from a few years ago. Taste of Tea has a similar surreal feeling and strange sense of humour - a young girl is followed around by a giant version of herself; a manga artist and an eccentric grandpa choreograph a music video to the stupidest song I have ever heard - but there’s a stronger story tying the surreal threads together.
Where Funky Forest’s absurdity bordered on the grotesque, Taste of Tea has a more whimsical, sentimental style, centering as it does on the lives of a single family in rural Japan. So not only is it visually brilliant and freaking hilarious throughout, it’s actually a little bit touching near the end too.
I know I watch a lot of crap Japanese dramas with dreadful acting and cliched plots, so you may not take my movie recommendations too seriously. But this is a legitimately amazing film on a whole lot of levels, so, dudes… Watch this movie!
