Cafe Lumiere
by Hsiao-hsien Hou
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Actor: Kimiko Yo, Masato Hagiwara, Nenji Kobayashi, Tadanobu Asano, Yo HitotoDirector: Hsiao-hsien Hou
Brand: Wellspring Media INC
Cinematographer: Ping Bin Lee
Writer: Hsiao-hsien Hou
Editor: Ching-Song Liao
Producer: Ching-Song Liao
Producer: Fumiko Osaka
Producer: Hideji Miyajima
Producer: Ichirô Yamamoto
Writer: T'ien-wen Chu
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); English (Original Language); Japanese (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 103 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-12-27
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Fox Lorber
Product features:
- One of today's greatest filmmakers, Hou Hsiao-hsien pays homage to one of the masters, Yasujiro Ozu, commemorating the centenary of Ozu's birth. In a residential Tokyo neighborhood, Yoko, a young freelance writer defies her strongly traditional parents with news that she is pregnant and has no desire to marry the father. She calmly accepts this reality and stoically deals with the worried
DVD Reviews of Cafe Lumiere
DVD Review: A good Japanese film from a Taiwanese film maker. Helps if you like trains.
Summary: 3 Stars
You have to like trains, find them romantic or aesthetically pleasing in order to enjoy this movie to the fullest: there's a train going by; there she is walking to the train; there she is getting on the train; there she is on the train; there she is getting off the train; there she is walking away from the train ... cut. Rinse and repeat.
Having said that, she, Yo Hitoto, a Japanese singer making her film debut here, is fabulous. I enjoyed her 'hmm', 'hai', 'mmm', 'grunt' style acting. I've never heard acting like it before. She gives a very natural and genuine performance. She's great. Her mom and dad are great. Tadanobu Asano is here. He's a good enough actor that you can sense his muted desire in subtle ways. Almost every minute of people interaction in this film, even in silence, is superb. But the film is padded with a lot of train rides and walking.
I assume we are to live with Hitoto's internals while she is traveling around doing nothing. The problem (or contradiction) with that approach is that we are presented with a character who appears not to have much going on inside, problem-wise. She is overtly presented as someone rather carefree. The spectacular scene where her parents come to visit and she speaks her mind about the man who made her pregnant gave me no sense that it was troubling to her. This seems at odds with the desire of the film. Or else it's genius. I was touched by (what turned out to be) the end of the film, until it turned out to be the end of the film. Hitoto's reaction both times to waking up to Asano's character: the first time when she has the flu and the second time at the end of the film, were lovely as could be. I give Hou high marks for reiterating the theme, and for making it obvious the first time and subtle the second but sadly, final time. Waking up to the little joys in life, done without fanfare. Hou does possess a subtle brilliance.
I understand what Hou is trying to do. I really think I get this thing. Well ... a couple things. One is the pace, creating a tempo, a rhythm. The other is creating a scenario with compelling characters that is deep enough to be immersive but not thick enough to proceed and resolve in traditionally expected ways. Basically, we should be left wanting more. We're given the gift of letting our imaginations fill in the blanks. That's a good thing. I just think Hou filled Cafe Lumiere with a little too much un-engaging material, although the Taiwanese director did highlight, very well, many of the family and generational issues that show up as the theme in many of the best Japanese films.The nonchalance of the daughter towards her pregnancy is not an approach her parents share. Nor is her un-romantic, pragmatic view of the man who made her pregnant.
I am suspicious of (these whatever generation) film makers who employ the nothingness technique in the name of realism. I think some of them are jerks who just want to be challenging, some of them are inept and don't realize they aren't succeeding in making something good, and some of them do things that appeal to others but not to me.
I'm not against the technique. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. And sometimes trains, or at least train tracks, are used very effectively.
Description of Cafe Lumiere
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