A double-award-winning piece from the Onihei Gaiden series. Ken Matsudaira’s passionate performance shines in this Onihei Hankachō spin-off.

Sanadaya is a small soba noodle restaurant in Makurabashi, Honjo. Every fourth of January, the couple who runs the shop only serves Sanada soba from Shinshū. The extremely pungent soba is ill-received from the guests, and despite its usual popularity, the shop is always empty on this specific day. However, one year, a man who looks like a wealthy merchant tries the soba, says he missed this specific flavor, and promises to come back next year. While being a chronicle of a soba restaurant, this masterpiece is also a melancholic and humane story of two men’s lives intersecting. The film is worth a watch even just for the rich-as-wine performance of Ken Matsudaira and Akira Emoto.

Japan｜ 2012｜ 77min｜ ｜

• ヒューマンドラマ