Midnight Diner

A diner in Tokyo opens at midnight and works until morning. There is one dish on the menu; anything else, the customer names and the owner makes if he can. The people who come are the ones who do not fit in daytime life: Tamako, who lost her boyfriend, Michiru, who sleeps at the workplace, the noisy Kenzo. Each dish opens a story. Jōji Matsuoka's film adapts the manga and television series of the same name. The structure is episodic: three separate stories around one counter. The owner barely speaks, and the film's job is to listen. Food here is not an aesthetic object but a way of saying what people cannot say to each other. Kaoru Kobayashi plays the owner. Who it's for: Viewers who like food-centred storytelling, episodic structures and quiet Japanese drama. Who it's not for: The stories are short so none of them deepens, and the emotional resolutions are familiar. There is also little new here for viewers of the series.