茶飲友達 (Chanomi tomodachi)

The Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme 2025

Dir. SOTOYAMA Bunji
2022 | 134 mins | Japan
Japanese with English Subtitles
OKAMOTO Rei, ISONISHI Maki, KAINUMA Miu, WATANABE Tetsu

Doing the right thing is not always the right thing to do.

Mana (OKAMOTO Rei) is the founder of a ground-breaking call girl service for elderly people called “Tea Friends.” They run three-line advertisements in newspapers that innocently seek “friends for tea,” and elderly “tea girls” are sent to the lonely men who respond, ostensibly for company but often also for sexual activities.

One day at a supermarket, Mana crosses paths with elderly shoplifter Matsuko (ISONISHI Maki) and offers her a job. Matsuko has grown disillusioned with her lonely twilight years, but rediscovers joy in being needed by others, and gradually becomes one of the most popular tea girls. However, just as business is booming and the group’s ties seem to be going from strength to strength, an incident occurs that attracts the attention of the police, and bonds thought to be unshakeable are revealed to be brittle.

Inspired by a real-life prostitution club bust in 2013, and directed and written by SOTOYAMA Bunji, Tea Friends is a socially-conscious ensemble drama that takes up the ever-growing issue of loneliness among the elderly, along with the rather taboo topic of sexuality within this group.

© 2022 “Tea Friends” Film Partners

The Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme 2025
Am I Right?
Justice, Justification and Judgement in Japanese Cinema

The UK’s biggest festival of Japanese cinema, the Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme (JFTFP), is back for its latest and greatest instalment!

In a world where injustice runs rampant, cinematic expressions of justice seem inexhaustible: time and time again, heroic protagonists fend off malicious antagonists or enact their revenge, the constant injustices they face mirroring audiences’ own. Japan is no exception to this, and the JFTFP25 promises to showcase how Japanese filmmakers use the language of cinema to explore the concepts of criminal, social, and moral justice, along with the ways people respond to external judgement. Featuring everything from thought-provoking hidden gems to laugh-a-minute entertainment, UK audiences are invited to join us in questioning the very concepts of justice, justification, and judgement against today’s backdrop of ever-changing values and perspectives

In collaboration with:

Major supporter: Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation

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Sponsors in Kind: Athletia, Calbee, Clearspring, Pentel and SUQQU

VENUE: EXETER PHOENIX, STUDIO 74

*Subject to a £1.50 ticketing system charge. We don’t charge this to make a profit. Find out more >>