To mark the centenary of Yasujiro Ozu's birth, Hou Hsiao-Hsien made his own Tokyo story, “Café Lumière,” a film with Hou's individuality, but full of subtle nuances in tribute to the Japanese master. The family drama gets a modern-day setting, with cultural change seen across the generations.
on Amazon by clicking on the image below
Yoko (Taiwanese-Japanese musician Yo Hitoto) is a journalist who switches her time between Tokyo and Taiwan. Researching Taiwanese composer Wen-Ye Jiang, she seeks out a cafe the composer frequented when based in Tokyo. And in tribute to Ozu, who favored dialogue over story, that is about that in terms of plot.
Family and its changing nature is a theme hinted at throughout, with Yoko being pregnant by her boyfriend in Taiwan. However, she has a somewhat blasé attitude towards the pregnancy, and indeed her boyfriend; unconcerned as to whether she sees him again,...
on Amazon by clicking on the image below
Yoko (Taiwanese-Japanese musician Yo Hitoto) is a journalist who switches her time between Tokyo and Taiwan. Researching Taiwanese composer Wen-Ye Jiang, she seeks out a cafe the composer frequented when based in Tokyo. And in tribute to Ozu, who favored dialogue over story, that is about that in terms of plot.
Family and its changing nature is a theme hinted at throughout, with Yoko being pregnant by her boyfriend in Taiwan. However, she has a somewhat blasé attitude towards the pregnancy, and indeed her boyfriend; unconcerned as to whether she sees him again,...
- 4/3/2024
- by Andrew Thayne
- AsianMoviePulse
The subject of dual nationality is one that has come up before in Japanese indie cinema, notably Takashi Miike’s work in the late nineties, particularly his “Black Society Trilogy”. Keisuke Imamura’s debut feature, “Yan” shows that this is still a source of difficulty for some Japanese with both internal and external struggles.
“Yan” screened at Nippon Connection 2020
Tsubame (Long Mizuma) is a man in his late twenties dedicated to his work. His father, following a period of business difficulties, asks that he goes to Taiwan to visit his estranged brother Ryushin (Takashi Tamanaka) and get his seal on some paperwork as he tries to set things straight. But, seemingly in his stride in life, this is something which Tsubame is reluctant to do, having not seen his brother for over two decades.
Originally born in Taiwan to his Taiwanese mother and Japanese father, Tsubame has lost touch with...
“Yan” screened at Nippon Connection 2020
Tsubame (Long Mizuma) is a man in his late twenties dedicated to his work. His father, following a period of business difficulties, asks that he goes to Taiwan to visit his estranged brother Ryushin (Takashi Tamanaka) and get his seal on some paperwork as he tries to set things straight. But, seemingly in his stride in life, this is something which Tsubame is reluctant to do, having not seen his brother for over two decades.
Originally born in Taiwan to his Taiwanese mother and Japanese father, Tsubame has lost touch with...
- 6/18/2020
- by Andrew Thayne
- AsianMoviePulse
Taiwan’s Hsiao-hsien Hou has often spoken of his admiration for Japanese master Yasujirō Ozu. In the 1993 documentary Talking with Ozu, attached to the Criterion edition of Tokyo Story and featuring such commentators as Claire Denis and Aki Kaurismäki, he compares the man’s work to that of a mathematician: one that observes and studies in a detached, clinical fashion. Often, returning to the same themes of generational conflict within the family unit, but doing so with a profound self-confidence that only lends such reiterations more weight. Hou goes on to state that, while he considers his own “observations and insight into the human condition” to be similarly objective, he really can’t compare. Yet, the similarities are very much evident. Indeed, few batted an eyelid when Ozu’s longtime employer Shochiku, upon commissioning a project for his centenary, chose not a Japanese but Taiwanese director to best capture the spirit of his films.
- 2/8/2015
- by Nicholas Page
- SoundOnSight
The official website for Nobuhiro Doi‘s Hanamizuki has been updated with a full trailer. The film is named after and inspired by a hit 2004 single by singer Yo Hitoto which is also used as the main theme song.
Yui Aragaki stars as a Hokkaido high school student named Sae who lives with her mother Ryoko (Hiroko Yakushimaru) and dreams of attending a Tokyo university. Sae studies for her entrance exams while being watched over by the flowering dogwood tree (hanamizuki) planted by her father (Arata), who died when she was young. Eventually, she meets and falls in love with Kohei (Toma Ikuta), who is planning to stay in Hokkaido and become a fisherman like his father. When Sae leaves Hokkaido for university, they attempt a long-distance relationship, but it’s ill-fated. However, a miracle occurs ten years later…
Toho will be releasing “Hanamizuki” in Japan on August 21, 2010.
Thanks to logboy for the heads up.
Yui Aragaki stars as a Hokkaido high school student named Sae who lives with her mother Ryoko (Hiroko Yakushimaru) and dreams of attending a Tokyo university. Sae studies for her entrance exams while being watched over by the flowering dogwood tree (hanamizuki) planted by her father (Arata), who died when she was young. Eventually, she meets and falls in love with Kohei (Toma Ikuta), who is planning to stay in Hokkaido and become a fisherman like his father. When Sae leaves Hokkaido for university, they attempt a long-distance relationship, but it’s ill-fated. However, a miracle occurs ten years later…
Toho will be releasing “Hanamizuki” in Japan on August 21, 2010.
Thanks to logboy for the heads up.
- 6/13/2010
- Nippon Cinema
The official website for Nobuhiro Doi‘s Hanamizuki has been updated with a teaser trailer. The teaser actually premiered on Japanese TV a few weeks ago, but it was predictably covered with morning news graphics and talked over by a chatty announcer.
The film is named after and inspired by a hit 2004 single by singer Yo Hitoto which is also used as the main theme song. Yui Aragaki stars as a Hokkaido high school student named Sae who lives with her mother Ryoko (Hiroko Yakushimaru) and dreams of attending a Tokyo university. Sae studies for her entrance exams while being watched over by the flowering dogwood tree (hanamizuki) planted by her father (Arata), who died when she was young. Eventually, she meets and falls in love with Kohei (Toma Ikuta), who is planning to stay in Hokkaido and become a fisherman like his father. When Sae leaves Hokkaido for university,...
The film is named after and inspired by a hit 2004 single by singer Yo Hitoto which is also used as the main theme song. Yui Aragaki stars as a Hokkaido high school student named Sae who lives with her mother Ryoko (Hiroko Yakushimaru) and dreams of attending a Tokyo university. Sae studies for her entrance exams while being watched over by the flowering dogwood tree (hanamizuki) planted by her father (Arata), who died when she was young. Eventually, she meets and falls in love with Kohei (Toma Ikuta), who is planning to stay in Hokkaido and become a fisherman like his father. When Sae leaves Hokkaido for university,...
- 4/18/2010
- Nippon Cinema
Screened at the Toronto International Film Festival
TORONTO -- Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien's works have always been compared to those of Japanese master Yasujiro Ozu. Now, he explicitly makes the connection by directing a Japanese film, set in Tokyo, about an ordinary family. In short, it's not unlike the kind of movies Ozu the elder predecessor used to make. He also dedicated the movie to Ozu.
Cafe Lumiere, like most of Hou's bare, unadorned dramas, is a slow and methodical affair. It's composed of long takes, minimal action and a very detached camera that often looks at the actors from the back or peeks through obscured doors and windows. This is not easy viewing, nor is it meant for the ordinary moviegoer.
Plotwise, little happens. Yoko (Yo Hitoto) is a young writer impregnated by her Taiwanese boyfriend when she was teaching Japanese in Taiwan. However, she doesn't want to marry him so she has returned to Japan to live with her parents, who naturally are worried about her circumstance. But all they do is worry and look pensive. There are no domestic arguments or emotional outbursts in this Tokyo story.
Instead, Yoko spends her time traveling through Tokyo's labyrinthine subway system, researches for an article about a Taiwanese jazz musician, hangs out at a secondhand bookstore run by an equally inert shopkeeper named Hajime (played by Tadanobu Asano who is completely unrecognizable from his famous Ichi the Killer role) and have coffee together. That's all that really occurs in the film.
This poetic portrait of simple Japanese life immerses you in the elegance of the ordinary. It could just as easily be set in Taipei with its very Asian routines: the daily buying and cooking of food, completely absorbing oneself in leisure hobbies and the reserved silence of families accustomed to noncommunicative displays of affection. In fact, the characters seem to be more comfortable talking to each other on the phone than in person.
While cinephiles are sure to pick up on the allusions and stylistic references to Ozu, Cafe Lumiere is in no way meant to imitate. Hou's own profound sense of alienation is very evident in the long stretches of silence. This is not Hou trying to copy Ozu but paying homage and carrying forward the lineage as Ozu's implicit disciple.
Still, this is one of Hou's lesser works. There isn't the historical gravitas or the deeply personal impressionism that mark his Taiwanese stories like City of Sadness or even 2001's disappointing but similarly aimless youth-themed Millennium Mambo. Cafe Lumiere is by Hou's standard a pretty lightweight effort. Just don't confuse lightweight with accessible viewing. The fact is if you can stay awake through the whole 100 minutes, you should get a medal for being a resilient movie diehard.
CAFE LUMIERE
Shochiku Co. ltd/The Asahi Shimbun Company/Sumitomo Corporation/Eisei Gekijo Co. ltd./Imagica Corp.
Credits:
Director: Hou Hsiao-hsien
Producers: Hideshi Miyajima, Liao Ching-sung, Ichiro Yamamoto, Fumiko Osaka
Writers: Hou Hsiao-hsien, Chu T'ien-wen
Director of Photography: Lee Ping-ping
Editor:Liao Ching-sung
Production Designer: Toshiharu Aida
Sound: Tu Duu-chih
Cast:
Yoko: Yo Hitoto
Hajime: Tadanobu Asano
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 104 minutes...
TORONTO -- Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien's works have always been compared to those of Japanese master Yasujiro Ozu. Now, he explicitly makes the connection by directing a Japanese film, set in Tokyo, about an ordinary family. In short, it's not unlike the kind of movies Ozu the elder predecessor used to make. He also dedicated the movie to Ozu.
Cafe Lumiere, like most of Hou's bare, unadorned dramas, is a slow and methodical affair. It's composed of long takes, minimal action and a very detached camera that often looks at the actors from the back or peeks through obscured doors and windows. This is not easy viewing, nor is it meant for the ordinary moviegoer.
Plotwise, little happens. Yoko (Yo Hitoto) is a young writer impregnated by her Taiwanese boyfriend when she was teaching Japanese in Taiwan. However, she doesn't want to marry him so she has returned to Japan to live with her parents, who naturally are worried about her circumstance. But all they do is worry and look pensive. There are no domestic arguments or emotional outbursts in this Tokyo story.
Instead, Yoko spends her time traveling through Tokyo's labyrinthine subway system, researches for an article about a Taiwanese jazz musician, hangs out at a secondhand bookstore run by an equally inert shopkeeper named Hajime (played by Tadanobu Asano who is completely unrecognizable from his famous Ichi the Killer role) and have coffee together. That's all that really occurs in the film.
This poetic portrait of simple Japanese life immerses you in the elegance of the ordinary. It could just as easily be set in Taipei with its very Asian routines: the daily buying and cooking of food, completely absorbing oneself in leisure hobbies and the reserved silence of families accustomed to noncommunicative displays of affection. In fact, the characters seem to be more comfortable talking to each other on the phone than in person.
While cinephiles are sure to pick up on the allusions and stylistic references to Ozu, Cafe Lumiere is in no way meant to imitate. Hou's own profound sense of alienation is very evident in the long stretches of silence. This is not Hou trying to copy Ozu but paying homage and carrying forward the lineage as Ozu's implicit disciple.
Still, this is one of Hou's lesser works. There isn't the historical gravitas or the deeply personal impressionism that mark his Taiwanese stories like City of Sadness or even 2001's disappointing but similarly aimless youth-themed Millennium Mambo. Cafe Lumiere is by Hou's standard a pretty lightweight effort. Just don't confuse lightweight with accessible viewing. The fact is if you can stay awake through the whole 100 minutes, you should get a medal for being a resilient movie diehard.
CAFE LUMIERE
Shochiku Co. ltd/The Asahi Shimbun Company/Sumitomo Corporation/Eisei Gekijo Co. ltd./Imagica Corp.
Credits:
Director: Hou Hsiao-hsien
Producers: Hideshi Miyajima, Liao Ching-sung, Ichiro Yamamoto, Fumiko Osaka
Writers: Hou Hsiao-hsien, Chu T'ien-wen
Director of Photography: Lee Ping-ping
Editor:Liao Ching-sung
Production Designer: Toshiharu Aida
Sound: Tu Duu-chih
Cast:
Yoko: Yo Hitoto
Hajime: Tadanobu Asano
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 104 minutes...
- 9/20/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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