"It's enough. I'm glad you understand." So says Mokichi (Shin Saburi) to his wife Taeko (Michiyo Kogure) towards the end of The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice—and that line right there not only summarizes Yasujiro Ozu's view of marriage as contingent on compromise and empathy, but also succinctly sums up the great Japanese filmmaker's complex, unsparing yet wise humanist perspective as a whole. Just when you think Ozu, after putting the Satakes' troubled arranged marriage under an alternately comic and dramatic microscope for about an hour and a half, is about to succumb to bitterness and cynicism, he surprises us with a scene overflowing with tenderness and love.

Without acceptance lies loneliness. Whether the initial passion was there or not, "reliability" is what inevitably keeps a marriage going. Someday the young ones will learn.

How Ozu makes a movie.

1 Tablespoon of Japanese music

A cup of Marriage

A Dash of amazing acting

And just for fun spice it up with a name that has nothing to do with the movie but makes you really want sushi

1. Mix it all together in a bowl of happiness
2. Put it in the oven on high for about 8 hours
3. Enjoy, for a bit of extra flavor, spice it up with about 10 scenes where the characters drink Sake

This is undoubtedly one of Ozu's greatest films. Even better a marriage-related effort than Early Spring! Both films can be regarded as comedies of remarriage. As great as Ozu's top tier works, Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice is about a wealthy middle-aged couple (beautifully played by Shin Saburi and Michiyo Kogure) who have marital difficulties, and their niece uses the couple's troubles as an excuse for not attending arranged marriage interviews. It's unmistakeably a film by the great Ozu. A number of Ozu's old motifs are here, including the clash between tradition and modernity. But here it's dealt with in a very complex fashion. There are no easy answer for anyone's predicaments. A masterpiece.

"Think carefully and choose your husband well. It's for the rest of your life. Whether you like his tie or the way he dresses doesn't matter at all. What's most important is whether he's reliable or not."

Bingung nonton Ozu yang mana jadinya aku pilih ini deh karena judulnya unik pake nama makanan Jepang. Makanan Jepang ini ngegambarin isi dan makna dari film.

Disini ngasih liat pasutri (Taeko dan Mokichi) yang berasal dari perjodohan dan ngasih liat karakter lain bernama Setsuko berumur 21 tahun yang gamau dijodohin.

Scene pasutri nyiapin dan makan bersama itu adem banget asli 😍

Ohiya nonton ini tengah malem bikin aku laper 😭

"The trick is a light touch."

Ozu’s cinema of smiles and sighs stands solitary in every sense of the word. It’s crisis sits just under the repressed circumstances of ‘modern’ society, it’s present in every second of the film, whether it is immediately apparent or not. The domestic tug and war of everyday, that taste of everyday: green tea and rice. That pessimistic optimism fascinates me to no end, as if capturing this undying truth of the cycle of the family and of life, fuelled by the generational gaps in young and old. A life lived contrasted by the hope of life to be lived.

at film high school all the film bros call me a Nerd for liking slow boring Asian movies about Asian women learning 2 respect their husbands instead of epically bad ass Christopher Nolan movies. What the? Let's dunk this nerd! they say as they smash my copy of "the flavor of green tea over rice"

first ozu!!!!! i now feel sad and hungry! thanks a lot!

#JapaneseFilmFestival2020

Story about relationship, family, communication and understanding.
At times it feels like a movie from a modern era. Beautiful. A classic.

3.8
Should have ended in the kitchen though

My first Ozu
A heartwarming simple story about marriage and tradition

Just a wild degree of camera movement by Yasujirō on this one

Lovely little film, Ozu and Noda exploring the dynamics between men and women/marital strife- it makes an interesting companion piece to The Nest from last year, which I was much cooler on (Carrie Coon aside). That movie was all dread and toxicity, whereas this is imbued with more humor and joy, even when the primary marriage seems so dysfunctional

When we went to Tokyo, I was obsessed with tracking down ochazuke- tea or broth served over rice and other things are thrown in, often used as a way of getting rid of leftovers. I’m guessing the association is that it’s a simple, cheap, easy comfort food. I got it in a restaurant, so it was fancier than all that, with fish, seaweed in it. Fucking delicious. We visited Ozu’s grave that same day.

Could’ve ended sooner because it made its point and didn’t have to hammer it home. But maybe that’s just an outgrowth of being familiar with Ozu as a filmmaker. Still quite enjoyable and filled with frames I could stare all day at.

How does he do it?? It’s always like “ok, sure this is very good I’m enjoying it” and then it hits you, and without being particularly different from the rest of the movie, the last fifteen minutes turn the whole thing into a masterpiece.

Cozy, especially the ending. Its a very intimate look at marriage and love in general within postwar Japanese society

When Aya says "men are a nuisance" yet the only men we are shown throughout the film are literal angels.

Felt a little overlong, but I enjoy spending time with Ozu’s characters. And I have a new dream date: eating heaping amount of noodles (with lots of broth!) with Noboru.

One of Ozu's great works that has been undermined for too long mainly by being probably his most complex look on marriage. Mainly by subverting the core gender dynamics in usual domestic dramas by making the husband passive and the wife aggressive. It enables you grapple with the facets of everyday life and insinuations that uphold notions of gender and marriage. It is one of the great films by one of the finest directors in film.

What's important is being reliable.