AN
Director: Naomi Kawase
Cast: Kirin Kiki, Kyara Uchida, Masatoshi Nagase, Miyoko Asada, Etsuko Ichihara
Rating: (M) ★★★★★
Sometimes when a person has come from a great period of suffering they emerge full of the wonder of still being alive and that joy draws others to them.
In An (Rialto) when we first see 76-year-old Tokue (Kirin Kiki) on a walk she alone stops to enjoy the beauty of a park filled with flowering cherry trees. A sweet smell in the air draws her to a humble little dorayaki shack (dorayaki are a popular snack in Japan that are best described as two pikelets with sweet red bean paste sandwiched between them).
Sentaro (Masatoshi Nagase), who operates the dorayaki bar, is a gloomy gus who does not even like his product. A tragedy has bonded him to the shop and he feels there is no escape. Still he has a perfectionist nature and tries to make the best dorayaki he can.
His little pancakes are good but the red bean paste is beyond him so he uses a commercial product. When Tokue tells him that she always wanted to work in such a shop and asks him to take her on he refuses; she is old and seems so frail but as a parting gift he gives her one of his dorayaki.
The next day she returns to complain that his red bean paste is no good and offers him a sample of her own red bean paste. Tokue's red bean paste is so good that Sentaro has to employ her. Soon their dorayaki are flying out the door.
All should be well but Tokue has a secret.
An is a bittersweet film that turns out to be about much more than making the perfect red bean paste.
- by Christine Powley
