Despite her prolific output, with films often times making their way to the Cannes Film Festival, Naomi Kawase seems to go under-appreciated here in the United States due to the lack of distribution. Thankfully her latest drama, Sweet Bean (previously titled An and Sweet Red Bean Paste), was picked up by Kino Lorber and will be arriving next month. Following the story of a small bakery, it was one of our favorite dramas of Cannes last year and today brings the U.S. trailer.
We said in our review, “Contributing immeasurably to this empathetic tone is Kiki’s soulful, splendidly unaffected performance. Playing someone with a sad secret to guard and a militantly cheerful exterior as defense, this portrayal could have gone off the sappy or the farcical end so easily. Instead, she succeeds in first tricking you into seeing this harmlessly wacky old lady who talks to red beans and greets birds, then smacks you awake with a lucidly unsentimental side free of self-delusion or -pity. It’s a testament to the precision and dignity of her performance that a couple of monologues delivered towards the end of the movie, blatantly targeted at your tear ducts as they are, hit every note with but the minimal trace of exploitation. Masatoshi has the less showy role but holds up his part of the duet with commendable restraint.”
Starring Kirin Kiki, Masatoshi Nagase, Kyara Uchida, Miyoko Asada, and Etsuko Ichihara, check out the trailer below.
Sentaro runs a small bakery that serves dorayakis—pastries filled with sweet red bean paste. When an old lady, Tokue, offers to help in the kitchen, he reluctantly accepts. But Tokue proves to have magic in her hands when it comes to making sweet bean paste. Thanks to her secret recipe, the little business soon flourishes. And with time, Sentaro and Tokue will open their hearts to reveal old wounds.
Sweet Bean opens on March 18th.