The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice (1952) User Reviews

simple fare

[GyatsoLa · 9/10 · 3 February 2008]

This is both typical and untypical Ozu - typical in that its a simple story with a typical simple point (but of course told with deceptive skill and complexity), but its unusual in that its set among the upper middle classes, not the 'average' Japanese family of most of his movies.

The story is straightforward - an unhappy marriage between a rich girl and her successful but relatively low born husband. She can't hide her contempt for his dullness and rustic ways. He is unhappy but never argues back, just finds his own little ways of getting pleasure out of life. A series of incidents finds them having an unexpected late night simple meal (green tea over rice is essentially 'leftovers' when nothing else is available) and suddenly she realizes she loves him after all.

As always with Ozu, the richness is in the characters. Taeko, played by Michiyo Kogure is spoiled and insensitive, but a compelling, capricious character. Mokicho (the husband) under his dull salary-man skin is really a sensitive, caring man. The other characters are all vivid and memorable, especially Setsuko, the headstrong niece. There are also wonderful set pieces, usually involving Taekos friends, having little girls nights together, gossiping about their husbands and plotting marriages.

With Ozu a brief overview of his movies always makes him sound dull. But in reality this is funny, moving and compelling. Its not first rate Ozu - the theme of the movie is too straightforward and obvious, the ending a little too neat and tidy. But second rate Ozu is still head and shoulders above almost any other drama. The humanity of the characters shines through, creating a little world we can sink into. The wonder of Ozu is that we are not observing characters, we are sitting with them, in the middle of their lives.

I can't help but compare this to Naruse's 'Repast', another movie about a marriage in trouble, where the wife cannot hide her contempt for her husband, but in the end they both realize why they love each other. Naruse was more of a pessimist, so the reconciliation at the end of Repast is both happy and sad, as the characters realize that that living together, even without a great love, is better than being lonely. In Ozu's more traditional world, the couple (product of an arranged marriage) eventually find love, even after many years of marriage by the acceptance of each others little foibles. Taeko learns that simple things can be as pleasurable as luxury. It seems a little trite, and it would be in another film makers hands, but somehow Ozu finds depths of wisdom even in such clichés.

The irony is that Ozu was a lifelong bachelor, yet he made perhaps the best movies ever made at examining families in detail. If I had my way I'd put this movie and 'Repast' as compulsive viewing for all engaged couples. It would be more effective than any pre-marriage course!

The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice

[MartinTeller · 8/10 · 6 January 2012]

Another sensitive Ozu film about family. In this one, a somewhat upper-class woman resents her more simple, middle-class husband (by arranged marriage), while also encouraging her niece to go to arranged marriage meetings. As always with Ozu, I found an awful lot to like about this movie, but I wasn't quite enamored enough to gush over it. Most of the core cast is superb, although it's not Ozu's usual team (Setsuko Hara is nowhere to be seen, although Chishu Ryu and Chikage Awashima have minor roles). Michiyo Kogure might be a little too nasty, but I have to say it's kind of refreshing to see a less restrained character in an Ozu film. Perhaps the film wraps up too nicely and neatly, going too obviously for a touching moment, but I wouldn't say it's entirely unwarranted. At any rate, I enjoyed the film with its insights and gentle humor.

The Taming Of The Shrew

[boblipton · 7/10 · 15 July 2019]

Michiyo Kogure is discontented with her long marriage to Shin Shiburi. She refers to him as "Mr. Obtuse" to her female relations and friends, and talks them into going on holiday with her, claiming to him that her niece, Keiko Tsushima, is at the resort, suffering from appendicitis; she's probably scared and lonely; and then Miss Tsushima walks in. Miss Tsushima is also a problem. Like many an Ozu woman, she doesn't want to get married yet, and certainly doesn't want an arranged marriage like her aunt. It's so primitive.

It all comes to a head one evening when he's enjoying rice with green tea and his wife doesn't like that way of eating it. He tries to explain that he likes simple, primitive, informal things, like cheap cigarettes and third-class railway tickets and pachinko machines. He understands she likes the 'better' things, and that's fine. And he won't pour tea on his rice any more. Her response is to walk out of the room.

I decided most of the way through that this was Ozu's variation on THE TAMING OF THE SHREW, without any of Petruchio's cruelty.... at least on the part of Mr. Shiburi. The studied cruelty is exhibited, in truth by Miss Kogure. There's not a cruel bone in Shiburi's body. He tries to get his niece to do the right thing simply by talking. He's remembered fondly by a member of his old army squadron as kind; he's sponsoring Kôji Tsuruta for a job at his company because he's the brother of an old high-school friend who got killed in the war. Perhaps Kate is a combination of Miss Kogure and Miss Tsushima.

The transformation of Ozu's style from before the war is almost complete. Gone are the American movie posters, although there's some discussion of a Jean Marais film; and the camera sticks pretty close to the floor, although there is one pull-in at the end of a scene, after the players have left. I'm not sure what that is supposed to mean.

Revelation in a bowl of watery Rice!

[barevfilm · 10/10 · 27 November 2019]

Viewed at Venice 2017 in the a Restored Classic section. "The Flavor of Green Tea over Rice", 1952. Ozu's restored masterpiece "Ochazuke no Aji" (The flavor of Green Tea over Rice) was a classic Japanese treasure well worth revisting. An examination of an arranged marriage on the rocks saved when the overbearing upper class wife finally realizes that there is more to the taste of Green tea over rice than it's relative tastelessness. With an all time magnificent performance by Japanese actress Kogure Michiyo. One of the highlights of the entire festival week was a digitally restored print of Ozu's "Ochazuke no Aji" (1952, his penultimate film just before Tokyo Story) with a magnificent Kogure MIchiyo as an upper class wife hugely dissatisfied with the boring middle class wage slave husband she landed in an arranged marriage. This is somewhat of a change of pace from his sedate Noriko films featuring stoically suffering Setsuko Hara. No Hara Setsuko in this one although there is a secondary character named Setsuko. Awashima Chikage is the chic feisty old girlfriend, Aya, who smokes heavily and is Kogure's gadfly sidekick advising her to stop being such a to her quietly adoring husband, Saburi Shin, a simple guy at heart who loves her thanklessly despite her high handed ways. He ends his meals by pouring green tea over the remains of his rice which Taeko (the wife) views as slovenly and low class. She spends a lot of time hanging out with three girlfriends and badmouthing her husband to them while referring to the uselessness of arranged marriages.

In a parallel subplot Setsuko (Keiko Tsushima) is the niece who, (unlike Hara in the Noriko trilogy) refuses to get sucked into an Omiai arranged marriage and ends up on her own with a very young bushy haired Tsurura Koji long before he became a top Yakuza Eiga star. Also featured in an unusual minor role is Ryu Chishu as the behatted owner of a new fangled (for the time) Pachinko Parlor. We also see part of a baseball game at Korakuen stadium. The four girlfriends are baseball fans. The film starts out with street scenes of Ginza with trolley cars and a long cab ride past the moats of the Imperial Palace in Otemachi giving us a feel for the new Japanese postwar prosperity after the American occupation came to an end.

Kogure's epiphany when Shin has ro leave for a quick business trip to Uruguay but comes home the same night because the plan had engine trouble shortly after takeoff, is something to see. After a marital spat she ran off herself with no explanation for three days and was not there to see Shin off at the airport. The long takes on her face as she rides the train back from Kobe and is thinking things over are a master class of acting in silence with facial expression alone. She was a truly great actress in an unsavory role up to the end when realizing that she loves her husband whom she had been referring to as Bonehead (don-kan) to her girlfriends all along, has a tremendous change of heart, realizes what an unmitigated bitch she has been and expresses her revelation by helping husband make his favorite simple dish, Green tea over rice, in a scene that is so touching it brought tears to my eyes. Earlier in a key scene she had berated him mercilessly for his sloppy way of eating the same dish!

This is typical Ozu with no camera movement but many lingering shots of hallways and alcoves that are themselves artful compositions, but it is slightly atypical in that the characters are more brash and outspoken than usual. A most interesting intro to the film was made by composer Ryuichi Sakamoto in a blue suit and white hair speaking flawless English. Sakamoto is here to promote a documentary film about his own life. He told how he was engaged by Shochiku to redo the music for the film but after listening to it carefully he decided that it was meant to be simple by Ozu and fits the feeling of the film perfectly as is. QWhat an experience to see this film again after more than thirty years! -- and that incredible Kogore --my favorite female role in all of Ozu, and that is really saying something. The wordless epiphany on her face when on the train she realizes the folly of her ways and that she does, after all, love her simple hearted husband is alone worth a hundred movies. Shin's restrained simple hearted husband is also a masterful piece of understated acting. He will shine again later in Tokyo Story. Ochazuke no Aji has one or two rough edges but becomes more and more tasteful upon repeated viewings and Michiyo Kogure's magical performance is the finest in all of Ozu -- (Roll over Setsuko Hara!)

A Good Ozu Film

[crossbow0106 · 8/10 · 26 September 2009]

This film mines much of the territory of Ozu films, including the complex relationships of the major characters, the resistance of a young lady to agree to an arranged marriage and the aesthetics of everyday living amongst the working classes. The film has two main stories, parallel to each other, running through it: Takeo, who is bored with her husband who is very simple in his needs, lies to him so she can go to a spa with her friends. Their niece, the pretty Setsuko, is the one who is resisting the arranged marriage meeting. How the two stories bisect is typical Ozu, creating conflict and anger. This film is not as good as much of Ozu's output at the time, but that includes "Tokyo Story", "Early Summer" and "Late Spring", which are standout classics. The great Setsuko Hara is not in this film and the equally great Chishu Ryu is a bit player, but I think you'll still find this film worthy of your time. If you haven't seen an Ozu film, start with "Tokyo Story" or "Late Spring" (others too, including "Good Morning" and "Autumn Afternoon") but give this a try. I don't think you will be disappointed.

Not top notch Ozu, but well worth watching

[Andy-296 · 7/10 · 3 April 2015]

Japanese master Yasujiro Ozu made this 1952 film between two masterpieces, Early Summer and (especially) Tokyo Story, and this film suffers a bit by comparison with them. As in other (somewhat more accomplished) movies by Ozu (one thinks especially of the superb Late Spring) the plot deals on the issue of whether a young woman should marry, and if that marriage should be a love marriage or arranged one. There is a middle aged, childless couple, the snobbish, nasty Taeko (Michiyo Kogure) and her husband, the honest, good but a bit dull salary man Satake (Shin Saburi). Her nephew, the pretty young Setsuko (Keiko Tsushima) comes to visit, she has to go to an interview for an arranged marriage, but seeing the loveless marriage between Taeko and Satake, and how she mocks him behind his back, is not very interested.

Ozu's best films haven't dated a bit, but this one has somewhat. Moreover, while I don't agree with the generalization that all of Ozu's films are slow (not all of them are), this one is on the leisurely paced side. What's more, the movie takes some time to develop its plot so it does require a bit of patience from the viewer. You will eventually warm up to this movie, I think, but not immediately.

On the plus side, it is a good, interesting movie, with believable, well developed characters. Chishu Ryu, Chikage Awashima and Kumiko Mikaye (all regular of many Ozu films) have bit roles here.

Flavour of Green Tea Over Rice (1952)

[SnakesOnAnAfricanPlain · 9/10 · 12 December 2011]

Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice starts with an excellent shot. Riding in the back of a car are two women, one is dressed in modern westernised clothes, while the other is dressed in a kimono. Such a shot perfectly captures many of Ozu's themes. Ozu then strengthens his topics with a simple conversation where Setsuko discusses seeing a French movie. Taeko is a bored housewife that insults her husband on a country getaway with her friends and niece. This really offends her niece Setsuko, and when it comes time for a wedding interview Setsuko is terrified that she will end up like her cruel aunt. Taeko's husband Mokichi is a very simple man with great patience. He tries to go along with his wife, but eventually it all becomes too much. She doesn't like the way he eats, the way he travels, or the cigarette brand he smokes. If I have one problem with this movie it's that Taeko is the most unlikable of Ozu's characters I have seen. She is simply cruel to an extent that it goes beyond culture/generational differences. Luckily it all adds together for an incredible ending. In true Ozu style, the married couple struggling to make something as simple as rice ignites their love and they decide to really make a go of things. It's really comforting to see a film that avoids all melodrama and rushes to the airports. It proves that subtlety can be a powerful thing.

A subdued family drama; A good quality Ozu film

[asandor · 7/10 · 2 January 2020]

The Flavour of Green Tea over Rice (Ochazuke no aji) is an Ozu film; a subdued drama analyzing the transformation of Japan post-WWII in small, personal ways. This film follows a childless married couple as they navigate changing traditions, conceptions of marriage, and love. The relationship between the two is strained - the husband is a simple country man who enjoys his country cigarettes, riding in the third class passenger car of trains, and throwing himself into his work with tact and politeness. The wife is a city girl, enjoying spa days, expensive and luxurious decorations, and first class train rides. These two struggle to relate to each other, in a marriage that was set up over a decade ago as an arranged marriage.

The catalyst to this film is when their headstrong niece comes to stay. A product of the new Japan, she is not interested in an arranged marriage, and instead wants to meet someone through dating, and marry for love, not familial status. This is scandalous to both her parents and our married couple. However, the two begin to see each other in a new light, engaging with new ideas, trying new things, and ultimately coming together in a touching and mute scene of culinary exploration and intimacy.

Ozu has a way with scenes. Each scene is meticulously detailed, and dripping with meaning, while maintaining a muted, quite feel. Ozu is, of course, a master of film making of this era, and this film is no different. It poignantly portrays the changing nature of relationships, love and marriage in Japan with subtlety, grace, and beauty. There are many wonderful scenes and shots in this film, and it is an Ozu film worth watching.

Complaints-wise, this film feels much slower then many of Ozu's films, almost to the point of not really moving. This seems to be a stylistic choice that compliments the thesis of the film, but also makes the film a bit distractable at times. Scenes feel like they jump at times, and the chronology of events, while supposed to be clear, is often not, for brief moments.

A wonderful film in many ways that just, barely, lacks the Ozu charm and perfection that is common in films like Tokyo Story, for example. Even so, this is a lovely, sweet and touching film that is easily watchable, and contains many of the charms of Ozu's work. Easy recommendation for fans of Ozu, or fans of quite, small and beautiful stories and dramas.

Husband and wife are like the taste of rice with tea

[Atavisten · 8/10 · 10 April 2005]

Its about a rich family and arranged marriages. Taeko is in an arranged marriage which is not so successful, they communicate very badly and she lies to get out and do fun things with her friends. For her it is easy to lie to the husband as she thinks he is very stupid. Her niece don't want to go on a arranged marriage meet, but decide for herself who she wants to marry probably a sign of the times, the transition from traditional to modern Japan. In other ways also the modern is juxtaposed with the traditional, they wear kimonos as naturally as western style clothes. And her sister is working in a top position as a designer.

As another IMDb reviewer said this is most interesting because of the charming characters. The elegant, but a bit arrogant and selfish Satake Taeko (Kogure Michiyô) had me spellbound from beginning to end. All characters are interesting and the interaction and communication between them make up the movie.

The city itself takes up a small role in the movie as well, something I like a lot. Editing also is very clever at times. Its never ordinary or dull.

Ozu as the master of the small emotions at his very best

[frankde-jong · 8/10 · 20 March 2022]

"The flavour of green tea over rice" is both a typical Ozu movie and one that defiates from his usual format in some respects.

Typical Ozu is the emphasis on small- and not on big emotions. The story is, as usual. Situated in the post World War II era, and the influence of the United States on the Japanese society is clearly visiblle (baseball match).

In most of the Ozu films the central relations are between children and parents (at the beginning of his career) or between parents and grandparents (later in his career). In "The flavour of green tea over rice" it is a married couple that forms the center of the film. Their marriage was arranged and is not in good shape. You can feel it when the man returns home from his work and the greeting of the two spouses is lukewarm at best.

The woman seems independent and emancipated at first. She has her female friends and she likes going out with them. As the film progresses she becomes however less and less sympathetic. In front of her female friends she expresses herself very disrespectfully about her husband (a dummy), whom we get to know as a person of great integrity. She happens to be of richer descent than her husband and dislikes his "cheap taste" (maybe being a snob herself).

Although differences between genarations do play a lesser role than in most Ozu films, they aren't totally non existent either. Seeing the marriage between her uncle and aunt, a niece of the woman in a subplot vehemtly resists becoming trapped in an arranged marriage herself.

In one of the most beautiful happy ends I have ever seen the two spouses reconcile with each other. When the man arrives at home in the middle of the night from the airport the servants are already in bed. Man and woman together prepare a meal, in so doing discovering how their kitchen works (normally the woman never cooks herself). The act of preparing a meal is capable to bridge the gap that hitherto existed between man and woman, just like the act of eating a (delicious) meal is capable of bridiging tge gap between Protestants and Roman Catholics in "Babette's feast" (1987, Gabriel Axel). The meal in "The flavour of green tea over rice" is however very simple compared with "Babette's feast". It's not the food itself that does the trick, it is all about the small talk during the preparation. Ozu as the master of the small emotions at his very best.

Genius

[alansabljakovic-39044 · 8/10 · 31 December 2019]

Ozu marriage stories are one of the best ones. He really hits you with his deep and truthful dialogues. I loved the cinematography and the use of shadows. Also, I got hungry watching this.

Rikyu's Echo Bar

[chaos-rampant · 2 March 2014]

Ozu continues to unfold a worldview of melancholy joy. Here we are offered an insight of what informs this: the glum husband wants things that are 'intimate, primitive, familiar and relaxed', from his brand of cigarettes to pouring tea over his dinner of rice.

So it seems Ozu gravitates towards his camera and world not from deep introspection or need for formalism but towards an intuition.

The benefit is that he naturally envelops space. He doesn't construct it, each visual scene is a soft pencil-stroke tracing and re-tracing paths as a way of arriving at shape.

Some kind of life emerges. In the scenes of the wife lounging with her friends in a spa around a table with drinks and then lazily feeding the fish in a pond, or the two army buddies reminiscing about a beach in Singapore during war with its palm trees, a melancholy breeze blows through it carrying sense, life, contact, memory, evocation. Individually there are wonderful visual moments here, some of the best in his films.

(In all this, he's in line with the great tea master Rikyu's instructions about serving tea, whose name appears in the film. It should not be a lavish or formal ceremony, but sparse and intimate, looking for spontaneous appreciation of what two people relaxing in each other's presence can inspire. Serving tea is merely the opportunity, the framework for contact.)

The flipside of that intuitive approach is that it's enough for Ozu to sketch as he goes. The idea is that life is a bit like this, apparent only in retrospect. He does have in mind a larger transition: a marriage that has grown cold and distant, the lonely night of breaking them apart and, as the man's flight is unexpectedly cancelled, their coming together again in the empty house.

This is a great great notion, the idea that you can create an entire life and for this to slowly crystallize realization in a single moment between two people. It resembles more clearly than any of his other films where Cassavetes would take this mentality in his Woman.

Ozu had tried this several times. For whatever reason, probably a rushed production, he's not in control of it here. This is the most disjointed of his films, a real mess. The ending is possibly the worst work Ozu has done, the wife now enlightened about the purpose of marriage explaining to the young girl (and through her to young women in the audience).

tradition, family, tea, Ozu

[dromasca · 8/10 · 4 August 2018]

The artistic path of the Japanese master Yasujirô Ozu spreads over 35 years, from the latest period of silent cinema until 1962. It's the first time that I see 'Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice' which belongs to the immediate post-war period in his career. Between 1947 and 1957 Ozu, back from the war and the army where he had spent seven years, made one film each year. A couple of them are considered among his masterpieces and among the best films ever made. It is not exactly the case with 'Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice' which has its flaws and shows signs of aging, but it's still a remarkable movie from many points of view.

Ozu wrote the first script of the film in 1939 and tried to push it through the Japanese Army cinema unit he was working with, but could not adapt it to the requests of censorship in times of war. Released 13 years later it belongs to the series of movies in which the director catches the process of transition that the Japanese society, its people and its institutions went through during the years after the defeat of Japan and during the American occupation. The external landscape is much changed, normality of peaceful, even comfortable life seem to be back, we see no visible signs of the destruction brought by war, and there is only one scene in which the main hero meets with a former army comrade which does not look too traumatic, neither too different from similar scenes that would have been done in other countries after WWII. The changes are at the level of the basic components of the society. While at the work place the working methods and technology have embraced some Western characteristics, the hierarchy and the paternalistic approach continue to dominate the work relations. The family keeps the male-dominated structure, but under the surface there is a revolution under way in what concerns the role of women. Two generations are being presented in the story on screen. The elder one still tries to keep the appearances and cheats the old way. The younger one would not accept the old ways and traditions including the arrangements of marriages. The crisis of the family in the two generations under the pressure of changes around is the main topic of the film.

The style of Ozu's story telling and film making is present and easily identifiable. Camera barely moves if at all, and each scene is a composition with the characters moving in elaborate sets which are a pleasure to enjoy visually. Much of the action takes place in the home of the mid-upper class heroes couple, and Ozu has no equal in filming inside the house with camera placed lower than most other directors locate it, in order to create the feeling of intimacy and the perspective of the inhabitants of the Japanese houses. His selection of actors includes Shin Saburi in the role of the apparently dull hard-working husband whose hidden secrets and deep humanity is gradually revealed and Michiyo Kogure as the wife (I liked less her interpretation). The ending is a combination of a great idea with the main reason why this film partly fails. On one side the idea of the family reconciliation through traditional food (rice) and tea is bright, and Ozu opens here a path in the Japanese and Far East cinema that will be followed and will reach exceptional achievements in the works of other film makers many years and even decades later. Unfortunately, this beautiful and sensible scene is followed by a badly scripted dialog in which the wife explains to her friends the reasons of the reconciliation. The conclusion seems both very conventional and unjustifiable submissive from the feminine perspective, and the way it is being told is also surprisingly bad cinema for a film by Ozu. Luckily there is one more final scene, showing the younger couple, which opens the gate for the future and the feeling that transformation is on its way and is nothing but unstoppable. Even the fix camera perspective is abandoned in this final sequence. The continuation however, belongs to another movie.

More fine Ozu

[directorscut · 8/10 · 24 November 2007]

FLAVOUR OF GREEN TEA OVER RICE is a couple of notches below Ozu's best but it is still a fantastic film. Many Ozu films centred around a marriage to be, and while that is a subplot here, the main story (once Ozu gets around to it) is about a marriage that already is and how poorly it is doing. What I mainly enjoy from Ozu isn't the plot but the great characters and their interaction and relationships. The wife in this film does walk a fine line of annoyance but in the end redeems herself. The film strolls to a wonderful climax where the estranged husband and wife realise how much they miss each other and after a talk begin love a new over a meal of tea over rice.

Not the best, but has Ozu's standards

[Naoufel_Boucetta · 8/10 · 5 November 2020]

Even if it's overshadowed by Ozu's other great films, "The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice" is still a very good piece that offers an interesting exploration of social and cultural oppositions of the post-war japan (tension between tradition and modernity, men and women, past and future.) in the most simplest and authentic way.

Perhaps the least highly regarded of Ozu's masterpieces.

[MOscarbradley · 10/10 · 18 April 2024]

In post-war Japan a middle-aged couple's arranged marriage is in trouble. Made just before "Tokyo Story", Yasujiro Ozu's "The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice" is one of the director's least highly regarded works and yet this is as incisive a study of marriage as anything by Bergman or Albee, the only difference being that Ozu's characters are so much more gentle, more humane. Even as the wife, (Michiyo Kogure, superb), wishes her husband would just disappear there is none of the harshness we find in films and plays from the West. Ozu clearly has a deep affection for all the characters in his films.

The husband Mokichi, (an equally superb Shin Saburi), may be a bore to his wife for no reason other than he is a good, quiet man whose life is simple and unexciting yet neither is she a typical harridan , just a woman who could have had more and who has, not too unhappily, settled for what she sees as her lot.

There is a subplot involving the wife's niece, (Keiko Tsushhima, excellent), who is now rebelling against her own planned arranged marriage and once again Ozu seems very much on her side. Like so much of Ozu's work this is another study of the role of women in Japanese society, mature, often very funny and absolutely essential.

Ozu's Taming of the Shrew

[alsolikelife · 14 December 2003]

An unassuming husband finds the nerve to employ non-violent resistance

against his contemptuous wife after hanging out for an evening with a rebellious niece who skipped her own interview with an arranged fiance. I really could

have cared less about the story as the characters were so lovingly drawn and

their interactions were a joy to listen to, and that's really where the action is in Ozu movies, the sounds and spaces between people as they repeatedly bump

into each other and modify each other's state of mind in ways both large and

small. Masterful as is almost always the case with Ozu, the film only let me down at the end when it seemed to side firmly with the henpecked husband, as if this were a wimp's rendition of TAMING OF THE SHREW.