Even first-time visitors to Japan may be familiar with honne and tatemae: The distinction between a person¡¯s true feelings and their public facade. The art of dissembling is taken to the extreme in Kyoto, famed as a place of inscrutable social etiquette where nobody says what they really mean. In a notorious example, if a host asks, ¡°Bubuzuke d¨dosu?¡± (¡°Would you like some green tea over rice?¡±), it isn¡¯t a friendly gesture: They¡¯re trying to get you to leave.
This phrase provides the 911±¬ÁÏÍø title for Masanori Tominaga¡¯s sprightly comedy of manners ¡ª renamed ¡°Strangers in Kyoto¡± for the international market, lest anyone mistake it for a Yasujiro Ozu film.
Many of the characters in the movie seem like they¡¯d happily serve a bowl of bubuzuke to protagonist Madoka (Mai Fukagawa), an ingenuous new arrival from Tokyo. Having recently married the 14th-generation heir to a traditional folding-fan shop, she¡¯s determined to understand what makes Kyoto tick. Worse yet, she intends to share the city¡¯s secrets, in a manga essay series that she¡¯s writing with her artist pal, Riko (Zuru Onodera).
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