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Eatrip is a Japanese film about the art of food and eating and the central place it occupies in our lives. It starts unpromisingly (from a vegetarian point of view) with a tour of a Tokyo fish market and some traders who have been there for ever and ever. They see the over-consumption of fish and how people want it all the time, even what is not in season and does not taste good.
Filmmaker Yuri Nomura then turns her lens to rural Japan, so different from the high-tech gadgetry and neon lights from the usual images of urban Japan. In Okinawa a mother raises her two kids in the purity of the outdoors, growing all of their own food and enjoying traditional, simple tastes. In other scenes a singer trades her homegrown brown rice for freshly-laid eggs, an actor experiences the nuances of the tea ceremony and a Buddhist priest laughs about all of the food he loves. For them food is part of a complete lifestyle which included sharing with friends. In some ways it is a slight film but it is beautiful and the sentiments are thoughtful and heartfelt.
This trailer is in Japanese but the film is really about images (look for the lovely bread being kneaded) so watch it anyway.