The Flavor of Green Tea over Rice

“I wanted to show something about a man from the viewpoint of a woman,” Yasujiro Ozu said of this film, which is a subtle portrait of an unhappy middle-class marriage told through a series of revealing domestic details. The husband is a placid, country-born businessman who marries a woman from a wealthier background. His very stolidity drives his wife to boredom and contempt; she wants to avoid what their life will be—simplicity itself, like the flavor of green tea over rice—and for this he scolds her harshly. Into this painful scene arrives a favorite niece whose romantic optimism stirs the couple into a noble fight for the return of grace and acceptance into their marriage.