Sweet Bean (2015) poster
2015 · drama

Sweet Bean

Directed by Naomi Kawase1h 53m2015
ElsewhereIMDb7.414kRT84%Metacritic60TMDB7.5605
  • warm
  • slow-burn
  • tender
  • intimate
Movie DNA

Warm, slow-burn, gentle drama, grounded in texture. Ambivalent, intimate, tender, hand-scored across twelve axes of taste.

How every film is hand-scored →

The master of a dorayaki pastry store hires a 76-year-old woman whose talents attract customers from all over. But she's hiding a troubling secret. Life's joys are found in the little details, and no matter what may be weighing you down, everyone loves a good pastry.

Our read · Sweet Bean (2015) reads as a warm, slow-burn, grounded drama entry — gentle in intensity, intimate in scope, tender in temperature, ambivalent in outlook, with a strong directorial signature. Hand-scored on twelve axes of taste — mood, pacing, weirdness, hope, stakes, humour, reality, density, warmth, auteur, intensity, and era — with a derived palette drawn from its dominant cinematography.

Where the cast leads
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The shape of Sweet Bean

Tonight, this looks like

What watching it is actually like.

You crave gentle Japanese food cinema hiding a devastating past.

ends bittersweetyou’ll feel glowing aftermeditativegrips by minute 22attention 3/5earns its lengthsubtitles: full
Date nightWith friendsSoloWith parentsKids around
Heads-upchild peril

Skip it tonightQuiet slice-of-life films feel too slight for your mood.

DNA · twelve axes

The reading.

Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.

Mood · HeavyCosy
Pacing · Slow-burnKinetic
Intensity · GentleExtreme
Weirdness · ConventionalSurreal
Hope · NihilisticRedemptive
Stakes · IntimateEpic
Humour · NoneBroad
Reality · GroundedFantastical
Density · SparseTwisty
Warmth · ColdTender
Auteur · TransparentSignature
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