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 dōdosu?” (“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 Japanese title for Masanori Tominaga’s sprightly comedy of manners — 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).
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.