Cha no aji (The Taste of Tea)

Everything about this movie was positively delightful. I am tagging is as Top 10 of 2007 already because I know I won't see 10 better movies.

A wonderfully toady grandfather, a manga animator mother, a hypnotherapist father and a son obsessed with the game Go (and a girl who plays it). Oh yeah, and a daughter who is followed by a giant version of herself and throw in a few bigger-than-life-size manga character costumes and some sort of weird Japanese mob. An ordinary family living their ordinary lives in beautiful, rural Japan.

You know in the first two minutes that it will be quirky and fun. It's not an LHFF in the sense that it is shallow or easy; this is a weird movie and not for everyone, but in the 2+ hours you get to know this family really well -- you celebrate and sing with them and recover from loss with them. You forgive them their bizarre quirks because they're family. Really well done. I want to see everything by this director.