Warm Water Under a Red Bridge (Akai hashi no shita no nurui mizu)
directed by Shohei Imamura, 2001; available on DVD in the USA
Warm Water Under a Red Bridge is a film for grownups, dealing as it does with what is known in the parlance as mature subject matter (sex, ooh!). That hurdle passed, let me tell you about the wagashi (traditional Japanese tea sweets) in this film: the female protagonist Saeko (played by Misa Shimizu) has taken over wagashi-making duties in her aging grandmother's shop, and during the course of the film we have occasion to see a little bit of what goes on in a small-town wagashi-ya, including glimpses of some cool tools of the trade -- hand-carved wooden molds or kashigata (pictured above), bean paste and other ingredients, and traditional packaging. I suppose one might need some background in Japanese confectionery to catch the nice details woven into the main story (and the film, while certainly not for everyone, is unusual, delightful, beautifully made, and also stars the ever-watchable Koji Yakusho), but even without prior knowledge you know there is something traditional happening before your eyes, and it's compellingly esoteric.
I wish I had some wagashi with me when I watched this movie... it's like Tampopo: don't watch the movie when you're hungry (side note: Koji Yakusho is in Tampopo, too, wow).
{kashigata image courtesy of the Etsy seller Products From Japan With Love, whom we thank for letting us borrow it}
More sweetness very soon,
Trixie
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