The Taste of Tea (blu ray)

Starring Tadanobu Asano (ICHI THE KILLER, GEMINI).

Filmmaker Katsuhito Ishii takes a break from the post-Tarantino excess of such highly-stylized outings as Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl for this low-key look at an eccentric family residing in a quiet countryside town just north of Tokyo.

The Haruno family is a five-piece clan living the simple life in Japan. The summer sun shining gently down, this quiet quintet is transformed into a six-piece when urban-dwelling uncle Ayano (Tadanobu Asano), a successful music producer, arrives to visit his family and confront his feelings for the ex-girlfriend who married another man after Ayano moved to the city.

As the lazy days pass by, each member of the family is followed in a series of episodic vignettes.

Special Features:

• 90 minute Making Of
• ‘Super Big’ animation
• Reversible sleeve with original release artwork
• (note: special features are in Standard Definition)

Director: Katsuhito Ishii

Cast: Maya Banno, Tadanobu Asano, Takahiro Sato, Tomokazu Miura

Genre: Comedy, Surreal Comedy

Language: Japanese (with English subtitles)

Country: Japan

Year: 2003

Runtime: 143 minutes

Region: B