Ozu continues to astound and devastate me. The humanism, compassion, and sadness that emanates from this film is remarkable, especially in the context of such formal restraint. Static camera, shot composition, the performances are all so understated but coalesce into something so beautiful. I loved the moments here when formality dropped--the friend group has little inside jokes, etc. I also deeply loved the interstitial shots of town life in between the bigger scenes in the movie--they were so grounding and beautifully shot. I wish I could frame some of those as gifs. It was beautiful and sad.

The Italian title is "Il sapore del sake"