The Taste of Tea US Screenings

Date: 2007 January 15 16:45

Posted by Joe

We've just been sent some interesting news from Viz Pictures in the US, who will be screening a Taste of Tea across New York, Chicago, Seattle and Portland. It's a live action flick, from the writer/director Katsuhito Ishii, who directed Shark Skin Man & Peach Hip Girl, Party Seven and the animated section of Kill Bill Volume 1.
US readers can catch the screenings at the following venues:

New York
General opening: February 16-22, 2007
The ImaginAsian
239 East 59th St., New York 10022
http://www.theimaginasian.com

Chicago
General opening: March 2-8, 2007
FACETS CINEMATHEQUE
1517 West Fullerton Avenue, Chicago, IL 60614
http://www.facets.org/asticat

Seattle
March 16-22, 2007
GRAND ILLUSION CINEMA
1403 NE 50th St., Seattle, WA 98105
http://www.grandillusioncinema.org

Portland
April 6-12, 2007
The Hollywood Theatre
4122 N.E. Sandy Blvd., Portland, OR 97212
http://www.hollywoodtheatre.org

Full Story

Press release as follows:

VIZ PICTURES ANNOUNCES RARE NORTH AMERICAN SCREENINGS OF THE TASTE OF TEA

Critically Acclaimed And Award Winning Film Is A Heartwarming Homage To Japanese Family Life

San Francisco, CA, January 15, 2006 – VIZ Pictures, an affiliate of VIZ Media LLC, the leading U.S. publisher of Japanese animation and comics that focuses on Japanese live-action film distribution, has announced a series of special North American theatrical screenings of the critically acclaimed and award winning film, THE TASTE OF TEA, from writer/director Katsuhito Ishii, who also directed "Shark Skin Man & Peach Hip Girl," "Party Seven," and the lavish animated portion of "Kill Bill: Vol. 1." THE TASTE OF TEA will be screening in New York, Chicago and Seattle.

THE TASTE OF TEA has been called a surreal version of Ingmar Bergman's "Fanny and Alexander," and presents a heartwarming and visually rich homage to Japanese family life. The film had its international debut at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival and won numerous awards at the 2004 Entrevues Film Festival, 2005 Montreal Fantasia Film Festival, 2005 New York Asian Film Festival, 2005 San Francisco Independent Film Festival and the 2005 Brussels International Festival of Fantastic Film.

THE TASTE OF TEA introduces audiences to the Haruno’s, a rather unconventional but happy and loving family. They live in a small town in the mountains just outside of Tokyo where life is good and quiet – but that doesn’t mean they don’t have their own quirks and little problems. There is 8-year old Sachiko (Maya Banno), who is bothered at inopportune moments by a giant-sized double of herself, who hangs around sitting on buildings staring at her, while her older brother Hajime (Takahiro Sato) privately wrestles with raging hormones and a love-struck heart after the arrival of a pretty new classmate (played by Amerasian actress Anna Tsuchiya, also seen in KAMIKAZE GIRLS). The mother works hard to come out of retirement as an animator, and the father, who watches her attempts with apprehension, is a professional hypnotist who occasionally plies his trade on his own family with often funny results. An uncle (played by Tadanobu Asano of ICHI THE KILLER) comes to visit and stays with the family, but he has a hidden agenda as he comes to terms with a romance that ended years ago. Another uncle, who is a successful manga artist, also stops in with his own dramas. It’s his birthday soon, and he wants to give himself something special. And lastly there’s Grandpa, the most eccentric and perhaps the most perceptive of all, who continues to search for a better way to live life to the fullest. All of these dramas are presented with rich visual imagery and allegories as an animated train emerges from someone's head, giant sunflowers bloom and orange-clad dancers appear from nowhere.