CAFE LUMIERE
Hou Hsiao-hsien, 2003
Marking the 100th anniversary of Yasujiro Ozu’s birth, Café Lumière isn’t an imitation of the great Japanese master so much as a graceful homage that reflects his thematic and aesthetic ambience. Hou's Tokyo story meditates on the extent to which traditional codes, practices and beliefs have less influence and meaning in contemporary society. It's primarily a portrait of Yoko (singer Yo Hitoto, impressive in her acting debut), a young woman researching the work of Taiwanese composer Jiang Wen-ye. She and her friend Hajime (played by Japanese star, Tadanobu Asano), a bookstore owner who records train sounds as a hobby, find respite in the calm of their easy platonic friendship. When she visits her parent’s home, Yoko makes it clear that she no longer shares their traditional values when she matter-of-factly informs them how she intends to deal with her unplanned pregnancy.
With Hou’s signature ellipsis and minimalism to the fore, meaning is gleaned via the relationship between reality and fiction, movement and stasis, and subtly observed interactions between the protagonists. There’s a lovely moment when Yoko and Hajime unknowingly pass each other on different trains, an understated passage that recalls a wonderfully poetic sequence in George Franju’s little known gem La Première nuit (1958), in which two children travelling on different trains silently regard each other from their respective carriages (mere feet apart) until the trains veer off and the two are separated ... perhaps forever. Whether Hou consciously quoted Franju or not is hard to say, but it was a beautiful sequence regardless, entirely suited to an affectionate homage to Ozu, and a perfect encapsulation of Hou’s preoccupation with the rootless isolation of contemporary urban life. The film could have been a much more sombre depiction of contemporary alienation, but Hou suggests that the reserved convictions of the central protagonists are meaningful alternatives to constrictive tradition and contemporary torpor.
Some may struggle with the pace, but for those with an appreciation for subtlety Café Lumière will be a deeply satisfying cinematic experience.