2015, Japan\/France, 113 min.<\/b><\/p>\n
In Japan, doriyaki vendor (Masatoshi Nagase) lives in brooding isolation, running his small store with rote efficiency. When he puts up a help-wanted sign, he\u2019s visited by Tokue, a meek, kindly, septuagenarian woman (Kirin Kiki) with gnarled, knotty hands. He declines Tokue’s entreaties to stop using vendor-bought, sweet bean paste between his pancakes\u2014until he tries her homemade confection. They toil in the pre-dawn hours, perfecting the paste via ritualistic acts of washing and boiling and waiting. Tokue, who lives with older, recovered lepers in a remote complex, finds happiness in life\u2019s basic pleasures: the blindingly white cherry blossoms that surround the shop; helping customers; finding freedom in creating a delicacy. Sentar\u00f4 learns to enjoy the grace of a simple life, as exemplified by Tokue\u2019s guileless, grateful ways, and learns to engage with the world that has run him down. Director-writer Naomi Kawase’s movie is an understated, powerful character study that shows how simple gestures of kindness can elevate our lives beyond parameters both inflicted upon us and self-imposed. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In Japan, doriyaki vendor Sentar\u00f4 (Masatoshi Nagase) lives in brooding isolation, running his small store with rote efficiency.<\/span><\/p>\n