Big Picture Big Sound

A Very Sweet Bean

Doriyaki pancakes are a popular snack item in Japan. You take two of them and spread a red bean paste between them. This red bean paste is a co-star in Naomi Kawase's sweet and sometimes special "Sweet Bean".

Sentaro (Masatoshi Nagase) is a dour man. He never smiles. He lives alone. His life is robotic. Every day he wakes up very early, walks over to an extremely small shop, and begins to prepare the doriyaki pancakes that he will sell through a window to the locals, with the regular customers being primarily girls of high school age.

One sunny morning, an elderly woman, Tokue (Kirin Kiki) shows up at Sentaro's stand. She is very gentle, quirky and inquisitive and asks if she might be able to work there. He explains to her that he does not have a job for her. She buys a doriyaki and remarks that the pancakes are pretty good, but that the bean paste filling is lacking.

Sentaro's reaction is devoid of emotion like all of his behavior. She gives him a bit of bean paste that she has made and leaves. Sentaro throws it into the garbage, but later retrieves it from the garbage and tastes it. He loves it.

The next time he sees her, he hires her. She shows him to make her recipe for the bean paste and together they sell it and business quickly explodes.

"Sweet Bean" is not about how well a business is doing. It's about people learning from each other and digging into what's below the surface. It's a Zen-like pondering of what is and is not important in life and Tokue is the vehicle to the destination. Kawase takes us on a life-affirming ride that reaches a level of enchantment where you feel like you've just had an excellent massage. It's very sweet.