Director – Naomi Kawase – 2015 – Japan – Cert. PG – 113m
****
Currently on BFI Player as part of 21st Century Japan.
A chef (Masatoshi Nagase) carefully pours just the right amounts of pancake mixture onto a hotplate to make dorayaki – two small, burger bun sized pancakes with a filling of sweet bean paste in the middle. An old lady (Kirin Kiki) asks if his part-time post is still vacant. To get rid of her he offers an outrageously low hourly rate. She proposes to work for half that. He makes excuses as to why it won’t work. “Thanks,” she says, “I’ll come again,” and disappears. Thus begins director Naomi Kawase’s Sweet Bean, a bittersweet tale of suburban life across the generations… [Read the rest]
Currently on BFI Player as part of 21st Century Japan.
Full review at All The Anime.
Trailer:
2020
Monday, September 12th: MUBI
2016