A Movie for our times? Warning: it may contain a very minor spoiler.
In some ways, "The Taste of Tea" is the perfect movie for our times. Emptiness disguised as true meaning. Gimmicks instead of true art. Lack of mastery of cinematographic language, among many other peccadillos, make this movie, in my eyes, nearly unbearable to see.
To begin with, why spend so much money to express so little? Why not give that money away to needy populations in Africa, Pakistan? My belief is that art is dead and buried in our times. This movie is living proof of that. How I miss the true artists of the form, such as Fellini, Antonioni, Pasolini, Chaplin, Godard, Agnès Varda (for her "Le Bonheur"), Reiner Werner Fassbinder (When is Berlin Alexanderplatz going to be out on DVD?), Bergman!! The few exceptions you find from times to times are there only to reinforce the rule...
Just to give a small example of how clumsy the director is: there is a lyrical scene, the only worth something in the whole film, when the family discovers some books drawn by the patriarch. A good director wouldn't show the content of the first books, but instead construct an emotional crescendo only with the actors' faces and small details, and finally reveal the content of the last book, where the audience would be startled by the revelation, while, at the same time, would be left wondering about the previous ones.
But the director shows all the books in detail. Some of them two times... For God's sake! Even sensitivity has to be spelled-out these days! Much like American movies when they turn up the music when they want an emotional effect! Using the same technique, I'll explain further: the director shows us a scene with an emotional impact, a book, with a trick. Got moved by it? Got it? No? Here he goes again, showing a second book... Not yet? Here's a third... And a fourth!! Frankly!!
OK, maybe it's just me... Many people raved about this film, right here... I may be wrong. But if I could offer the director a little piece of advice, I would say: you have potential, man. Now go see Berlin Alexanderplatz and learn.