Strangeness That Defies Analysis

My DVD pick of the week is the Katsuhito Ishii film CHA NO AJI (THE TASTE OF TEA). That is a film I wish I had seen on a 100-foot IMAX screen instead of my portable DVD player’s 9-inch display. My regret has nothing to do with the film’s special effects. Of course, since this is a Katsuhito Ishii film, there are some creepy images that completely defy analysis and will positively haunt me for weeks. I might also mention the film is sprinkled with computer-generated oddities that enchant the eyes and simultaneously boggle the brain. For instance, a train emerges from a schoolboy’s forehead and glides toward an azure sky. A nine–year-old girl is haunted by her own 60-foot doppelganger. A giant sunflower expands and swallows up the girl, Japan and then the entire solar system before it dissolves into nothingness. That’s worth the price of a ticket for some moviegoers, but what do these images really mean? Isn’t this a movie about family? According to Ishii, in a rare Q&A session at a past Hawaii International Film Festival, if you don’t understand The Taste of Tea in all its bewildering, psychotropic glory, don’t worry. You were never supposed to. So, don’t be too puzzled when the occasional giant ascends into the frame. The truth is, even without the FX, there is plenty here to enchant the eyes of Japanophiles and independent film audiences.