The movie is not without some small pleasures...but neither character is developed beyond broad characteristics, in spite of them occupying 95% of the film's taxing two-hour running time.
Sweet Bean(あん)
✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
Japan, France, Germany · 2015
1h 53m
Director Naomi Kawase
Starring Kirin Kiki, Masatoshi Nagase, Kyara Uchida, Miki Mizuno
Genre Drama
Add to Watchlist
Please login to add films to your watchlist.
Sentaro runs a small bakery that serves dorayaki pastries filled with sweet red bean paste to a small group of schoolgirls who frequent the shop. When an old lady, Tokue, offers to help in the kitchen he reluctantly accepts. She will soon prove to have magic in her hands…
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
Screen International by Dan Fainaru
The clichés start to arrive in rapid succession. Even the most moving performances cannot disguise their obviousness.
The Hollywood Reporter by Deborah Young
Director Naomi Kawase’s adaptation of Durian Sukegawa’s novel An aims so low that it makes good on its modest ambitions.
The New York Times by Glenn Kenny
The movie, beautifully shot and acted, earns its ultimate sense of hope by confronting real heartbreak head-on, and with compassion.
Just as An itself seems on the verge of flying away, however, Kawase rewards her audience with an unapologetically contrived but effectively eye-moistening surge of feeling.
Sweet Red Bean Paste is a modest film which seeks profundity in the detail of life.
The A.V. Club by Mike D'Angelo
What makes this film more potentially enticing to Westerners than the seven films that preceded it? Two words: food porn.
The Playlist by Oliver Lyttelton
Unfortunately, it proves to be as disposable as the snack it revolves around.
The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw
The film has an impeccable technical finish, but it is insipid, contrived, solemn, and ever so slightly preposterous.
The Film Stage by Zhuo-Ning Su
A well-crafted mainstream effort with accessible emotions and that whiff of Kawase-que zen.
Users who liked this film also liked
12:08 East of Bucharest
(A fost sau n-a fost?)
Three men try to answer a question which, for sixteen years, has not had an answer: "Was it or wasn't it a revolution in their town?"
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Romania • 2006
- Director Corneliu Porumboiu
- Cast Mircea Andreescu, Teodor Corban, Ion Sapdaru, Mirela Cioabă, Luminița Gheorghiu, Cristina Ciofu
- Genre Comedy, Drama
- Available on Kanopy
The Steamroller and the Violin
(Каток и скрипка)
Seven-year-old Sasha lives a sheltered, somewhat constrained life, until he meets Sergei, who works in his upscale Moscow neighborhood.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Soviet Union • 1961
- Director Andrei Tarkovsky
- Cast Igor Fomchenko, Vladimir Zamanskiy, Marina Adzhubei, Yuri Brusser, Vyacheslav Borisov, Lyudmila Semyonova
- Genre Drama, Family
- Available on Criterion Channel
All's Well, Ends Well
(家有囍事)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Hong Kong • 1992
- Director Clifton Ko Chi-Sum
- Cast Stephen Chow, Leslie Cheung, Raymond Wong, Sandra Ng Kwun-Yu, Maggie Cheung, Teresa Mo
- Genre Comedy, Romance
- Available on Apple TV
Ningen Shikkaku: Director's Cut-ban
(人間失格 ディレクターズカット版)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 2009
- Director Morio Asaka
- Cast Masato Sakai
- Genre Animation, Drama, History
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Sacrificed Youth
(青春祭)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- China • 1985
- Director Zhang Nuanxin
- Cast Li Fengxu, Feng Yuanzheng, Yu Tan
- Genre Drama
- Available on No streaming locations found.
The Tale of Iya
(祖谷物語 -おくのひと-)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 2013
- Director Tetsuichirô Tsuta
- Cast Rina Takeda, Shima Onishi, Min Tanaka, Hitoshi Murakami, Sachi Ishimaru, Christopher Pellegrini
- Genre Drama, Fantasy, Mystery
- Available on No streaming locations found.
A Loving Husband
(恋妻家宮本)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 2016
- Director Kazuhiko Yukawa
- Cast Hiroshi Abe, Yuki Amami, Miho Kanno, Saki Aibu, Asuka Kudo, Akari Hayami
- Genre Drama
- Available on No streaming locations found.
New World
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Poland • 2015
- Director Elżbieta Benkowska, Michał Wawrzecki, Łukasz Ostalski
- Cast Olga Aksyonova, Julian Świeżewski, Dominika Maiseyenka, Svetlana Anikej, Hassan Akkouch, Dariusz Chojnacki
- Genre Drama
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Amazon Video, YouTube
Silhouette of Your Voice
(ひだまりが聴こえる)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 2017
- Director Daisuke Kamijô
- Cast Tawada Hideya, Onodera Akira, Ami Yamazaki, Mitsuya Ryo, Miyu Ohsaka, Hiroe Igeta
- Genre Drama, Romance
- Available on Rakuten Viki
Hostages
(Заложники)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Georgia, Russia, Poland • 2017
- Director Rezo Gigineishvili
- Cast Irakli Kvirikadze, Tinatin Dalakishvili, Merab Ninidze, Nadezhda Mikhalkova, Mariya Shalaeva, Avtandil Makharadze
- Genre Drama
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Radiance
(光)
A woman who creates audio descriptions of movies for blind audiences falls in love with a photographer who's losing his sight.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan, France • 2017
- Director Naomi Kawase
- Cast Masatoshi Nagase, Ayame Misaki, Tatsuya Fuji, Kazuko Shirakawa, Kanno Misuzu, Mantaro Koichi
- Genre Drama, Romance
- Available on Hoopla, Film Movement Plus, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Vudu, Amazon Video, YouTube, Kanopy
Anonymous Noise
(覆面系ノイズ)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 2017
- Director Koichiro Miki
- Cast Ayami Nakajo, Jun Shison, Yuta Koseki, Erina Mano, Hayato Isomura
- Genre Romance, Comedy, Drama, Music
- Available on No streaming locations found.
When My Mom Died, I Wanted to Eat Her Ashes
(母を亡くした時、僕は遺骨を食べたいと思った。)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 2019
- Director Tatsushi Ōmori
- Cast Ken Yasuda, Mitsuko Baisho, Nao Matsushita, Jun Murakami, Renji Ishibashi
- Genre Drama, Family, Comedy
- Available on No streaming locations found.
If Only
(Magari)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Italy, France • 2020
- Director Ginevra Elkann
- Cast Oro De Commarque, Riccardo Scamarcio, Alba Rohrwacher, Céline Sallette, Brett Gelman, Milo Roussel
- Genre Drama, Comedy
- Available on No streaming locations found.
My Best Part
(Garçon chiffon)
Struggling filmmaker Jérémie returns to his overbearing mother's home in the country while he picks up the pieces of his broken life.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 2020
- Director Nicolas Maury
- Cast Nicolas Maury, Nathalie Baye, Jean-Marc Barr, Arnaud Valois
- Genre Comedy, Drama
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Amazon Video, YouTube, Kanopy
Doraemon: Nobita's New Dinosaur
(映画ドラえもん のび太の新恐竜)
Doraemon: Nobita's New Dinosaur
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan, Thailand • 2020
- Director Kazuaki Imai
- Cast Wasabi Mizuta, Megumi Oohara, Yumi Kakazu, Tomokazu Seki, Subaru Kimura, Kotono Mitsuishi
- Genre Animation, Adventure
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Our 30-Minute Sessions
(サヨナラまでの30分)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 2020
- Director Kentaro Hagiwara
- Cast Mackenyu, Takumi Kitamura, Sayu Kubota, Shono Hayama, Shuhei Uesugi, Sho Kiyohara
- Genre Music, Romance, Comedy
- Available on No streaming locations found.
God's Daughter Dances
(신의 딸은 춤을 춘다)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Korea • 2020
- Director Byun Sung-bin
- Cast Choi Hae-jun, Kim Woo-gyeom, Lim Ho-jun
- Genre Drama
- Available on No streaming locations found.