In 1939, under the militaristic regime, Ozu and his screenwriter Noda Kōgo wrote a screenplay in which a man was enlisted into the army and argued with his wife on account of his patriotism; she later recognizes that her husband is right and they reconcile by eating a plate of green tea over rice, a frugal meal. The censors objected that for an occasion as solemn as enlistment a more celebrative dish would have been appropriate. So Ozu made his film, which he rewrote, in 1952; the reason leaving became a transfer to work abroad. The film touched many of the director’s themes, from the relationship between women and men with an added touch of comedy (as in Equinox Flower, also starring Saburi Shin) to the hard pragmatism of young people to arranged marriage, which in this film becomes a marital crisis between a snobbish wife and her more simple husband, who grew up in the country. The crisis is resolved in front of a simple plate of the title food, following a delicious scene in which the married couple, wishing to prepare dinner themselves without waking up the maid, explore the kitchen with perfect complicity. Even the wife finds it delicious. Saburi Shin (the husband) had the perfect face for serious conservative characters (see The Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family); but also possessed a subtle gift of self-irony, which Ozu fully exploits in his films. (Giorgio Placereani)
DIRECTOR: Yasujirō Ozu
NATION: Japan
YEAR: 1952
RUNTIME: 115′
CAST: Saburi Shin, Kogure Michiyo, Tsuruta Kôji, Ryû Chishû, Awajima Chikage, Tsujima Kerko
Original version with subtitles