This ‘exquisitely simple' TV show is the perfect antidote to these frantic times

The Age

2 days ago

In Shinjuku, Tokyo, a tiny 12-seat diner opens at midnight and closes at 7am. The proprietor, known to all only as 'Master', has a handwritten menu on the wall with only four items: pork miso soup, beer, sake and shochu. But he'll make you whatever you want, as long as he has the ingredients and it's not so complex as to be beyond his skills. Every night, he serves up what is requested, and 25 minutes later, you're filled with a strange and beautiful new perspective on life and most likely in tears.
This is Midnight Diner, a Japanese Netflix show that, like the Master's irresistible dishes, is possessed of an exquisite simplicity that brings feelings bubbling up like simmering sauce with a minimum of fuss or action – a stillness and serenity that is almost startling to those of us used to the frantic flailing of stories told by Western filmmakers.
It is about food, in a very deep sense, and about life, in an equally deep sense, and it strongly pushes the philosophy that the two are indivisible.
There is magic in the air at the Midnight Diner: there is always just the faintest hint that something might be going on beyond our ken.