Café Lumière

Movie Info

Genre(s): Drama  |  Foreign

Written by: Hsiao-hsien Hou
T'ien-wen Chu

Directed by: Hsiao-hsien Hou

Release Date:
Theatrical: June 10, 2005
DVD: December 27, 2005

Running Time: 104 minutes, Color

Origin: Japan / Taiwan

Summary

RATING: Not Rated

Starring Yo Hitoto, Tadanobu Asano, Masato Hagiwara, Kimiko Yo, and Nenji Kobayashi

A residential neighborhood in Tokyo, 2003. Yoko, a freelance writer researching musical legend Jiang Ewn-Ye, befriends Hajime, the owner of a secondhand bookstore. They spend many hours together in the district's coffee shops and train stations. Yoko feels she can tell the quiet, calm Hajime anything. When she is with him, she experiences an unusual peace of mind, a calmness of spirit. For his part, Hajime loves Yoko profoundly, but remains silent. Raised in rural Hokkaido by her near-blind uncle, Yoko now enjoys a good relationship with her father and step-mother. But when she returns to her father's house and tells them she is pregnant, and that she has no intention of marrying the Taiwanese father, they worry deeply for Yoko's future. (Wild Bunch)

Also On Metacritic

FILM: Millennium Mambo Three Times

Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site

What The Critics Said

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What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 7.2 (out of 10) based on 5 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Chad S. gave it a6:
When we finally learn something about Yoko (Yo Hitoto), it's that she's a writer. Yoko goes to a book store and asks the clerk about a musician she's doing research on. This is surprising, because up to this point, the only thing we know about her is that she rides the bus. Writers' block, perhaps, brought upon by the anxiety over her pregnancy? Since we never do see any coroborating evidence that she's a scribe. Hou Hsiao-hsien once again establishes his love for the static camera, and the framing of people in doorways. "Cafe Lumiere" has the advantage over "Millenium Mambo" of having its scenes bathed in daylight. Tokyo in the sun is easier on the eyes, much more so than nightclubs and murky apartments. But with the exception of "The Puppetmaster" and "The Flowers of Shanghai", his reputation as a great filmmaker eludes me. Yoko is needlessly enigmatic. Tell us something.

T Ngo gave it a10:
Wonderful. Hou pays homage to Ozu, but manages to evoke a message of his own.

M Santell gave it a0:
The critics could not be more wrong or misleading on this film. I love foreign films but this film has no "reason d'etre." There is no storyline, no action, little dialogue and no drama of any type. I've read that this was meant as a tribute from one Japanese filmmaker to another. That's fine but mislead the rest of us that this is some type of profound film and that we are at fault if we don't recognize it.