Ishi's whimsical, playful take on rural Japanese family life veers from the banal to the surreal. It is an episodic look at the quirks of various family members, but not family life, because each character lives in their own little bubble mysteriously alienated from those around them. There is very little interaction between family members, or anyone else for that matter. Ideas are introduced - Hajime's first love is delicious and hell, Sachiko needs to get her bar skills up, Grandpa had a secret art project - and then just left to wither like persimmons in the Tochigi sun. The film meanders, but goes nowhere. We finish with a sappy montage of all the characters staring at the same sunset, a pat ending belying the lack of characterization or plot.Yamada's Village of Dreams takes a rural childhood, relates it episodically, to make meaning that resonates universally on themes of nostalgia and loss. This film just whimpers from one slapstick-TV set up to another. Some of the scenes bring a smile to your face, and the photography is flawlessly done, although the one-scene/one-set-up cutting gets a bit monotonous. But you could jumble the scenes in this film in a randomizer and come out with the same amount of meaning and emotional impact. It is all very ho-hum, and drags tediously after the first 90 minutes.As a writer, Ishi seems best suited to short-form comedy, the experimental kind that dominates late-night Japanese TV. This material should never have been cobbled together into a feature film. Lovely visuals, strong performances, but in the end just a lot of wry smiles and bizarre behaviour adding up to nothing.

I watched this film as part of a sort of "move binge" I was having and as such the true beauty of the film was somewhat dulled in my mind as I went directly from watching one movie, to watching it, to watching another. However, after reflecting on it and then watching it a second time I really can say that this movie is quite good. As many others that have commented have mentioned, it's not particularly "exciting" in a traditional movie sense; but the aesthetic quality of the scenes, along with the superb acting job done by the main characters and the creativity of the story make it a very good film. The reason I chose to watch the film in the first place was largely due to the fact that I'm a big Tadanobu Asano fan and I saw he was in it. He isn't really that major of a character in the movie (no one really is) so don't expect any kind of outstanding performance from him. Don't get me wrong, he plays his role very well, but everyone's role in the film is somewhat muted, as that is the overall mood of the film in a way.

A truly beautiful film full of wonderful imagery and comic moments that made the almost 2 and a half hours fly past. It really needs to be seen in a cinema where you can totally integrate yourself in the atmosphere and you feel like a fly on the wall, watching the family and their situations without interrupting their flow. Visually nature plays a huge role, not just the human side of it (which is simple and uncomplicated) but the countryside, the river, the wind, the cherry blossoms, the rain etc etc. It really is beautifully filmed and the characters are all very touching, very funny and very normal really (except perhaps the psychedelic singing uncle),in their own quirky little ways. There isn't a real story line, we just follow the family over a seemingly short period of time. Some moments in the film may seem relevant and some may not, but they all do seem to fit in somewhere along the way and they are all such a pleasure to watch. I came out of the cinema feeling as though my karma was on a high and I still do.

Just some information concerning director Katsuhito Ishii. Cha no Aji is his third feature, he's also an established music video and commercial director. Through his association with Grasshoppa, a production company in Tokyo launched over two years ago, he's also directed several short films, including works in animation. He collaborated with Quentin Tarantino on the anime sequence in Kill Bill vol.1. Cha no Aji shows how an urban family has made the move to the countryside, managing to keep an active, stimulating life, a theme explored by several young directors from Japan. Ishii succeeds in merging the traditional plots of the Japanese family drama with the creative eccentricity of Tokyo trends. Although indie star Tadanobu Asano has appeared in all of Ishii's films, the director's secret weapon is Tatsuya Gashuin, another Ishii regular, who plays the part of the grandfather, a former manga master. Why Katsuhito Ishii's films haven't released overseas remains a mystery...Nobody knows?