Yasujirō Ozu's The Flavor of Green Tea over Rice is a simple movie about appreciating the simple pleasures in life. The film centers around a strained, middle-aged married couple with no children. The husband, Mokichi Satake (Shin Saburi), works as an executive at an engineering company and enjoys living relaxed lifestyle. He loves traveling third class on trains, cheap cigarettes, and ochazuke, a simple dish consisting of green tea over rice. The wife, Taeko (Michiyo Kogure), finds Mokichi dull and unbearable. She seems to relish opportunities to lie to him so she can go on lavish vacations with friends to spas. Their lives are disrupted when Mokichi's family asks them to act as matchmakers for Setsuko (Keiko Tsushima), their strong-willed niece who resents arranged marriages. Soon Mokichi and Taeko have a falling out: Taeko won't speak to him, even when he is assigned by his company to fly to Uruguay on a business trip. After he leaves, Taeko comes to the realization that maybe Mokichi's outlook on life had some merit after all. The Flavor of Green Tea over Rice is a minor film by Ozu, but it should be of interest to scholars because of how often he moves his characteristically static camera. There are many shots that take place from the inside of moving vehicles. Additionally, a shot where Ozu slowly zooms his camera in and out on an empty domestic room is repeated several times throughout the film. In a sense, it almost acts as one of Ozu's trademark "pillow shots."
7/10
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