A Pastry Shop In Tokyo: The Beauty Of Everyday Life

The Japanese filmmaker Naomi Kawase has an interesting career in the world of feature films and accumulates important national and international awards. In 2015, he gave us A Pastry Shop in Tokyo , a film in which, although nothing exceptional happens, it invites us to connect with the world, with the everyday. The beauty of the film lies in its sincerity, in the delicacy and detail with which the story is told.

The cinema can be seen as an element of pure entertainment; However, we must not forget that it is still an art form, an art of storytelling. Kawase knows very well the story he wants to tell us and he does it in the best way at A pastry shop in Tokyo .

The film received critical acclaim but also enjoyed notable box office success. The secret? The universal, the universality of the feeling that is perceived from the first minutes of the footage.

In addition, A pastry shop in Tokyo connects with Japanese culture, with the symbolism of those cherry blossoms that constantly remind us of the ephemeral nature of beauty and life itself. Slowly, smoothly, but perfectly detailed, the film leads us along the path of life, showing us the beauty of little things.

Accept and accept the other

A pastry shop in Tokyo places us in a very different Japan than we are used to imagining. Yes, we are in Tokyo, but not in the frenzied Tokyo flooded by new technologies, but in the most humane Tokyo.

In this scenario, which will be reduced especially to the small bakery, we are presented with three quite lonely characters: Sentarō, the manager of the business; Tokue, an old woman whose wish is to work in the pastry shop; and, finally, Wakana, a young woman with quite a few conflicts with her mother.

These three characters seem to be associated with three stages of life: youth, middle age and old age. As distant as they seem to us in age, the truth is that the characters achieve a certain connection between them, changing their way of seeing the world.

Absolutely everyday characters with different battles to face in their day to day will end up learning from the other, accepting themselves and the world around them. Over Sentarō weighs the shadow of his dark past, Wakana still seeks her place in the world, while Tokue already has a long journey and knows marginalization.

Tokue tries to convince Sentarō to hire her and, when she finally succeeds, her dorayakis , the Japanese sweet that the pastry shop prepares, become a resounding success. However, when the clients meet Tokue, rumors will begin about his disease, leprosy; so Sentarō will be forced to fire her. Thus, without anything too surprising happening, the film gives way to a series of daily circumstances full of messages.

Rejection, loneliness, marginalization, acceptance of one’s own self and otherness will be some of the topics covered in A pastry shop in Tokyo , but always from the naturalness and simplicity.

The sounds of nature and those of everyday life will take on an important weight in this narration, the wind that shakes the cherry blossoms, the steam that comes out of the bean paste, the sounds of the kitchen … Everything is endowed with a realism and fantastic detail that envelop the viewer in the beauty of life, of the ordinary.

The film puts aside the shocks and acts like our own life, sometimes, in everyday life, nothing exceptional happens. Our conversations can be about truly different topics, ranging from the most momentous to how to prepare a particular meal. Thus, A pastry shop in Tokyo builds a film in which everyone has something to learn, including the audience.

Tokue, a woman with a past marked by the stigma of leprosy and suffering, reveals herself as a positive presence, who despite her age still believes she can be of use. Young people, for their part, are more taciturn, Sentarō in particular, but they will be infected with Tokue’s magic, that knowing how to appreciate life, value the little things, live without prejudice and with tranquility.

A pastry shop in Tokyo: the importance of feelings

It almost seems that we can perceive the aroma of the bean paste, the taste of the dorayakis and the wind caressing our skin. The stage itself, the real world, behaves like one more character.

There is a certain connection with the elements of nature, the bird that Wakama possesses acts as a kind of reflection of the young woman, caged, like her, without being able to detach herself from the bars; cherry blossoms accompany Tokue on his walk through life, slowly detaching himself from this world, but in a quasi-poetic way.

These cherry blossoms are part of Japanese culture, they symbolize the ephemeral of life and have given rise to countless haikus , that is, short poems of the Japanese tradition that, with few words, manage to condense emotions and feelings. Tokue shows us the importance of doing things with love, with affection and, of course, with patience. Preparing the anko , the bean paste used for dorayakis , shouldn’t be a hectic job done in a rush.

Tokue talks to the food, he understands that they need his time. In a world in which it seems that we are always in a hurry, that we prioritize speed over quality, the elderly woman reminds us that life, like cooking, requires patience, calm and enjoyment.

Tokue does not feel anxious when he sees that the bean paste is taking too long, but sits patiently to see how it is being made, he is carried away by the aroma that the food and the sounds of the environment give off. Thus, through a simple recipe, it gives us an authentic life lesson, it teaches us to value the details, to enjoy each moment and to wait patiently.

The characters will fight against incomprehension, both external and proper, they will understand that our passage through the world, like that of the cherry blossoms, is ephemeral and hangs by a thread. In this way, A pastry shop in Tokyo puts before our eyes a universal truth, but one that we seem to have forgotten. Nature speaks and runs its course, while we are too busy with our rush and the frenzy of our life forgetting, sometimes, that we are part of that same nature.

Like a haiku , A pastry shop in Tokyo encapsulates in a few words what our stay in the world really means, the importance of emotions and acceptance. The sensations cross the screen and Tokue’s lessons invite us to reflect on our own life and the way in which we relate to reality.

With patience and delicacy, Kawase gives us this small piece of everyday life that reminds us that, although we belong to very different cultures, there are feelings that are universal.