Hirokazu Kore-eda's Netflix series 'Asura' is transformative

Sometimes, a great new television series arrives with loud announcements and general heralding; sometimes, one slips in quietly as if on slippered feet, declining to call attention to itself.

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I don’t know why there weren't pronouncements from the hilltops when “Asura,” the new series from the great Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda (“Nobody Knows,” “Our Little Sister,” “Shoplifters” and many more) arrived on Netflix in January, but nonetheless here it is, and we can only be grateful. Kore-eda, who's been making feature films since the 1990s, is a master of the quiet moments of family life: a sibling's unspoken resentments, a boy who dreams of bringing his divorced parents back together, a mother longing for her child, a parent’s slow fading away. All of these are beautifully in play in “Asura,” and the longer TV format (the series has seven episodes, each about an hour long) gives time for the plot elements to simmer, like the delicious-looking food frequently served during the scenes. (Everyone in “Asura” is always delightfully hungry.)