Comments
Siskoid
Generally, Ozu's post-war output has been dramas about marriage and the generation gap, but The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice (1952) has such a playful, light touch, I rather put it in the comedy category. It's still about those subjects, of course. Michiyo Kogure is the central character, a woman in an arranged marriage to Shin Saburi - a civil, distant affair laced with a certain deference and politeness reserved for when you go to a friend's house - who is aunt to young Keiko Tsushima, who refuses her own arranged marriage. New Japan vs. Traditional Japan, as usual, and you knew it would be from the first shot of the two women in a the back of a cab, just by their clothes and interests. Ozu creates this clash throughout with room decoration, the characters' outings, and so on. How can the aunt convince the niece when her own example is a terrible one, and one that also shows that beyond the generation gap is also a rural/urban gap that acts the same way. Seeing themselves from the outside like this actually makes the older couple face up to their lack of communication and the tension between them... and makes them come to a new (and touching) understanding? Believe it. An understanding that reconciles Japan's two halves? Perhaps.
