Best movie of this year hands down!

That was an excellent one.

Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

An absolute waste of money

Before seeing this film, i had not read anything about it. I just saw the poster and thought it was a nice slow film with theme's and an interesting subtle plot.The movie has GREAT images, and GREAT scene's in it. i was immediately taken by it. But, after 1 hour, still NOTHING happened. And that's exactly the weakness of this film. We had break halfway trough the film. My girlfriend and i had a drink and we listened to other people chatting about the film. someone said: "Finally a movie that makes you think!" and "very, very moving".It's so typical that people say this. Acting all smart and insinuating that they see all kinds of theme's and symbols. But this movie does NOT have symbols, and the only theme is: daily life. because it leaves you with nothing to think about. Everything get's explained throughout the movie; after a scene ends so does that little story. No tension is build whatsoever, and no plot is introduced. Just a family with "normal" lives. The film has some great moment where an interesting development could have happened, but no development worth mentioning happens. So walking out of the theater in the middle of the movie leaves you with the same feeling as walking out at the end of the movie. The movie has nothing to say.But the images and a lot of those short scene's make up for that: Slow camera movement from great angles, great use of color and contrast. The best way to watch it is to view a couple of scene when you have nothing better to do. You can walk in and out of this movie without missing a thing...

Cha no aji is a great Japanese film. In trying to answer a friend's question "What does it resemble?", All I thought of was "Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain" and Haruki Murakami's two superb and fantastic works: "Super frog saves Tokyo" short story and his novel "Dance, dance, dance".This film is more about sensations rather than following a plot. And what makes it so interesting and powerful is that the exploring of those sensations have to do more with the viewer's than with those shown by the characters.Original, imaginative, funny, silent, and insightful. As the title suggests, you may as well try to watch it enjoying the taste of tea.

Katsuhito Ishii said in an interview that he put everything in this movie that he himself would want or always wanted to see in a movie. And it turns out that it's probably that which many of us miss. Everybody asks himself the questions "What would have been, if.." or "Why did this happen..." after a plot twist or after something grave happens to the protagonist(s). In cha no aji no severe incident hits the family depicted, rather it is a portrait of different lifestyles, we follow the family members in their everyday life and see the smaller and bigger stuff that troubles them. There is no need for a thunder in this movie, rather it's a beautiful story where you can just sit back and relax and never have to fear for the sanity and well-being of the characters. This movie is the thoughts everyone of us has, when reading a book or watching movie and something terrible happens. Because in this movie we can see how the characters live when everything goes on normally. Yet the movie doesn't get boring at any time. The dialogs are crafted well and so is the imagery. Sometimes the movie touches you right at your heart, because everyone of us knows how it is to have family. So everyone shares something with the characters. This movie is just the beautiful fairytale that happens all over the world and everyday...

Really fantastic! Ishii offers us a great moment of dream, with humor, absurdity and poetry. Some kind of Non Identified Movie that you quite don't see any more. Everything is built around a little girl getting exhausted by her giant imaginary double. She has a manga-designer mother, a reserved father, a fist-in-love brother, a nut grandfather and a mysterious uncle. This delirious and particular family will follow its path through more than two hours of slow poetry, giving the audience a wonderful time. Don't miss it if you have any chance of watching it, you'll be dreaming in a theater!