Teddie Blake
The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.
Aneesa Wardle
The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
Lela
The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.
blumdeluxe
"An" is the story of a pancake-shop-owner, who searches an employee for his small shop and receives an application from a very old lady with odd-looking hands. At first he strongly refuses to hire her, but when he tastes her An, he gets a feeling that she could be a blessing for his business. As time goes by, the two of them and a shy school girl form close bonds, until the cold-hearted owner of the house forces him to fire herdue to her illness.Somehow there's something special about this film. Although not much really happens, you can still sense a kind of chemistry that keeps you positive towards the plot. However, and that's probably an unpopular opinion, this is one of the few movies where I think a bit more Hollywood would actually suit the film well. As it is, the story is missing some ups and downs and even though I like how the shop becomes kind of a fix point in the lives of such different people, it is hard not to get distracted when almost nothing happens and even the warm and wise words of the old lady lose some value because it seems like the film has just been produced to embed them. Nontheless, this is a greatexample of how anyone can become an important person inour lives when we are open-minded enough.All in all this is a beautiful film, lacking some tension. I do recommend a view because there's something special about the atmosphere, just don't expect anything fast.
lasttimeisaw
Internationally acclaimed Japanese auteur Naomi Kawase's 8th feature, SWEET BEAN sets its three-generation confluence in a small dorayaki shop, the owner Sentaro (Masatoshi Nagase), a middle-aged loner paying his dues to his troubled past, a septuagenarian Tokue (Kirin Kiki), who wins the co-worker vacancy with her bean paste, made from her homegrown recipe brims with deference and care to the beans, and a secondary-school pupil Wakana (Kyara Uchida), who frequents the shop and may relinquish the possibility of a higher education due to pecuniary deficiency at home. Naomi's feminine adroitness permeates from the start go, a lackadaisical Sentaro begins his quotidian grunt work in his perennially glum mood, against a beauteous streetscape dotted with cherry blossoms as if we too, can vicariously smell their flagrance. The advent of Tokue, like a gentle breeze, both leavens the taste of Sentaro's dorayaki and his woebegone life, the narrative takes a leisurely and pretty predictable course in the trio's interactions, heedful to details and not spoon-feeds us with their jeremiad. Soon, it is Tokue's wretched past emerges to the forefront, suggested by her gnarled fingers and deformed hands, she is indeed a victim of leprosy, had been secluded from the society in a sanatorium along with her likes for decades. The sticking point of prejudice against Tokue's condition looms large, and begins to disintegrate their business success, in an almost wordless segment, Tokue knowingly bows out, and by the time Sentaro and Wakana finally visit her in the verdant sanatorium, Tokue looks rather anemic and we realize, the elision of lachrymose and saccharine is right around the next corner. The film may as well bring down its curtain there, without gilding the lily with the subsequent voice-over heavy addendum from both Tokue and Sentaro, the former passing her final animistic wisdom to exhort him (and audience alike), whereas the latter, finally lets on his tale of woe in misty-eyes.What comes off squeaky clean is the two central performances, the venerable Kirin Kiki brilliantly conveys Tokue's senescence with sublime precision and then countervails it with a buoyant earnestness, balancing a fine line between dotty and astute, but never for a minute, sags into self- pity or mawkishness. In the case of Masatoshi Nagase, who is slated for a very different task to grapple with, Sentaro is in a way, self-ostracized under his carapace of miserabilism, and Nagase commendably curves out a lucid contour of Sentaro's inscape with great restraint and subtlety. In the main, SWEET BEAN is a potently therapeutic melodrama, a tad errs on the side of sentimentality, but it is more like a fly in the ointment than a wrench in the works, moreover, Naomi Kawase's humane tack of storytelling and gossamer tangibility of the mise-en-scène, do speak volumes among the burgeoning conglomerate comprises of the ever-expanding working female filmmakers today.
phoenix 2
A sweet story about strangers who meet and giving chances to people around you, as well as having a second chance in life. The main characters are outcasts by their society, misfits that they work together to produce the best sweet red bean paste pan cakes that quickly become popular. There is tragedy in the movie, but the makeshift family that those misfits create is sweet, as only those three could understand and support each other. The performances are great, without overdoing it with the dramatic element and thus making everything more realistic. The scenes are beautiful, with the spring cherry blossoms the meddle with the people's tragedies. Overall, a nice film, so 6 out of 10. PS even my mom who avoids Japanese (and non English films in general) loved it, if that helps.
WILLIAM FLANIGAN
Sweet Bean (an/餡) viewed on Streaming. Makeup/prosthetic = nine (9) stars; subtitles = eight (8) stars; cinematography/lighting = five (5) stars. Director Naomi Kawase's multi-generational tale of cultural isolation and neglect, food preparation in a one-product mini pastry shop, and the viral nature of rumors (both positive and negative) and their impacts on small local businesses as well as landlord greed is a highly original mash up and compelling to watch. (Dorayaki are traditional Washoku (Japanese food) consisting of small pancakes filled with sweet (from sugar) red bean paste.) With a background that seems steeped in Shinto philosophy, the Director has created a very Japanese film. Kawase also provides a tutorial on proper bean-paste preparation. There are no plot surprises; everything is well telegraphed in advance (including the mostly happy endings). Acting is uni-formally quite good. Veteran actress Kirin Kiki (樹木希林) is a knock out in the role of an elderly pastry chef (and noninfectious victim of leprosy). Actor Masatoshi Nagase delivers a mostly workman like performance. Actress Kyara Uchida seems a bit too old to play a high school student. Cinematography (wide screen, color) and lighting are so-so. Scenes shot inside the mini bakery set can go in-and-out of focus. Other interior and night scenes are usually poorly lit to the point of preventing the viewer from seeing what's happening. Score is fine, but with a little bit too much piano. Subtitles are very good due in part to uncomplicated, straight-forward lines of dialog. Highly recommended. WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.
