Yasujiro Ozu's films have always been mild and bland, as is the theme most of his films reveal: ordinary life.
In ordinary life, marriage becomes a very important developer.
"お茶漬の味" ("The Taste of Tea Bubble Rice") tells the story of a couple's marriage from contradiction to reconciliation, which is symbolized by the most simple meal in Japan, "Tea Bubble Rice". The wife was born in high society, most of the time with the women in her circle gossip, in front of the husband of ordinary birth is always a high-minded look, she does not look at all the behavior of the down-to-earth and stereotypical husband, and expresses disdain for the husband's niece. She always thought she didn't love her husband because the two were on different tracks of life.
Most of the time she didn't understand what he meant by plain life, but it wasn't until one day he was gone that she felt firsthand what was bland and understood the nature of simplicity. And no matter how gorgeous the yearning, after all, it floats on the surface, and it is safe to land. At the end of the film, the wife suddenly began to be eager for her husband who returned home, and assisted her husband in making simple tea and rice, and her expression, tone, and movements began to change to echo her husband, and sat opposite her husband, sharing the tasteless tea and rice.
The man who likes to eat tea and make rice is probably the epitome of Ozu. Stereotypical, old-fashioned, traditional, advocating a plain life, and in sharp contrast to the flashy women around him. No matter how noisy the floating world, in the end, it can not withstand the essence of life and returns to the plain, resembling the monk Ozu, with a silent sutra-like lens, conveying this view.
Life, should it be plain or passionate? Especially when it comes to marriage, it is even more puzzling. Marriage is a collection of days, and days are the repetition of day after day. You can be disobedient and try to impose some stimulus to make the day look different, but the occasional effort cannot resist the inevitable replication. It is as if the sun always rises from the same place and lands on the eternal and unchanging West Mountain.
Learning to enjoy the blandness, hiding the impulses and noises of the past, seemingly compromised, is actually a kind of workaround law. Just like a bowl of tea and rice, you can add plums, you can also add salmon, you can also add any ingredient you like to get the difference in taste. The essence of life is bland, but everyone's blandness is fundamentally different.
Written by KOYO / Shadow Collection