ABSTRACT
This chapter examines Sweet Bean (Kawase Naomi, 2015), the protagonist of which adopts an animist mode of being characterized by openness to and communication with nonhumans, including the titular ingredient used in her signature confection. The film links this animist capacity to her contraction of Hansen’s disease and the institutional history of leper colonies in Japan. The chapter analyzes how the film engages with haptic visuality and navigates various generic frameworks—from the process genre to melodrama—to portray the protagonist’s animist capacity through culinary production. This emphasis on food preparation and cooking holds ethical and political significance for contemporary Japanese society, particularly in light of the post-Fukushima food security crisis.
