The Flavour of Green Tea Over Rice (Region B)

Japanese master Yasujiro Ozus beautiful domestic drama is piercing portrait of a marriage coming quietly undone in post-war Tokyo

Made the year before his career defining masterpiece,Tokyo Story,Flavour of Green Tea Over Riceis one ofYasujiro Ozusmost beautiful domestic sagas, a subtly piercing portrait of a marriage coming quietly undone.

Secrets and deceptions strain the already tenuous relationship of a childless, middle aged couple, as the wifes city bred sophistication clashes with the husbands small town simplicity, and a generational sea change in the form of their headstrong, modern niece sweeps over their household.

Ozus expert grasp of family dynamics receives one of its most spirited treatments, with a wry, tender humour and an expansiveness that moves the action from the home, to the baseball stadiums and the shops of post-war Tokyo.

Extras

• Re-mastered at 4K and presented in High Definition for the first time in the UK
• Feature-length audio commentary by critic and Asian-cinema expert Tony Rayns
• Alternative unrestored audio track
• The Mystery of Marriage(1932, 34 mins): educational filmmaker and pioneering female director Mary Field draws peculiar and poignant parallels between the mating rituals of humans, animals and mould in this eccentric, entertaining educational film
• The Good Housewife In Her Kitchen(1949, 9 mins): the fourth wall is shattered in this imaginative public information film, filled with good advice for kitchen users – whether they have a refrigerator or not