The Birth Of Saké
Erik Shirai
2015
No frills documentary that follows the traditional process of making saké by hand in the Tedorigawa Brewery owned by the Yoshida family, from taking in the raw product through various painstaking processes to the end product.
Involving long and arduous days we get to witness the various stages from the addition of koji mould through shubo (yeasting). moromi (mashing) to jo-só (pressing of the fermented product) but as the near seven-month long process involves both working and living together (with only two days off each month) this is more than just a documentary about the process as we are also privy to the camaraderie of the close-knit community of workers too.
There are also occasional snippets of life outside the workplace via the family of the Toji (brewmaster) Yamamoto, his childhood friend Chi-Chan and heir-apparent Yachan (who is not only being groomed as the next brewmaster but also single-handedly spends the months outside of production marketing the finished product around the world).
The work itself is labour intensive with a scientific edge but whilst the various processes are detailed to the viewer fairly well time is also taken to show the workforce at leisure, such as watching two aged Japanese men squirt good-naturedly over each other in a bath and the entire workforce sampling the finished product. Life is not all roses though, as shown by the sudden and unexpected death of one of the workers toward the end of production and the round-up at the end noting that two of the workforce opted to find employment elsewhere after the season is over.
The one real negative for me is the score, which thankfully is quite sparingly employed but is typical of the modern malaise of using sonorous notes irrespective of whether they are particularly suited to the visuals or not.
All in all
The Birth Of Saké is a nice, easily watchable documentary that not only gives an insight into it's chosen industry but also imparts a real feel of the sacrifices workers in the saké industry have to make and I'm more than happy to give it a
+