“Sweet Bean,” May 15, 2024 (2015), Japanese/subtitled, DVD. This small, film offers far more than just a sweet confection. Sentoro (Masatoshi Nagase) is the rather beaten down proprietor of a dorayaki stand selling pancake red bean paste confections. His pancakes are fine, but his red bean paste is subpar. His whole life is subpar, as he is more indentured laborer than proprietor. This all changes with the arrival of Todue (Kirin Kiki), an old and very persistent woman who seeks employment and claims to have a way with red bean paste, having made it for decades. He finally agrees to take her on after tasting her paste.
The success her arrival brings forces him to reevaluate much more of his own life, including the emptiness of his work. Along with a quiet young student, the three transform the stand. Making the dorayaki, he learns, is not simply a task. Rather it can be a meaningful immersion in work, with connections he never imagined.
But the film is also a look at the power of fear and exclusion in Japanese society. We learn Sentoro and Kodue’s back-stories and see the positive and negative impact of truths revealed. Yes, it sometimes veers to the sentimental, and there are moments where Kiki’s acting is a bit over the top. But it is mostly well-acted and underplayed in a thoughtful and meaningful way. It speaks to basic human needs for work, for connection, for self-respect, and for understanding. Making a street snack is not simply making a street snack.
This lovely, fundamentally kind film fits wonderfully with “The Taste of Things,” “Perfect Days,” and “The Old Oak” and gave it a special meaning and connection for me.