"Cafe Lumiere": In Tokyo, lives like trains that pass in the night
"Cafe Lumiere" explicitly billed itself as an homage to the late Japanese auteur Yasujiro Ozu in honor of his 100th birthday in 2004. But this beautiful film by Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien is much more than a pastiche drawn by one great stylist in memory of another.
The images that make "Cafe Lumiere" such a mesmerizing experience owe a great deal to Ozu's reverential technique in observing the everyday of life. It has been rightly noted that Ozu's 1953 film "Tokyo Story" served as a near-literal blueprint for Hou's movie, a haunting contemplation on lives in the tucked-away bustle of the same city. But Hou also brings his own vision to the story.
In Hou's Tokyo story, the mundane reality of a young girl doing academic study on a Chinese composer is backdrop to its existential heart. Yoko (Yo Hitoto) has just returned from a research trip in China to one of millions of infinitesimal apartments in a faceless area of the city. Through a series of largely static shots that give the film a languorous tone, it unfolds that Yoko is pregnant by a Chinese man she has no intention of marrying.
Yoko spends her time mostly alone, surrounded by thronging masses of people. The only human interaction she has is with her parents, who are coldly skeptical of her independent life and plans, and a warmhearted bookseller, Hajime (Tadanobu Asano), with whom she spends hours in a cozy coffee shop, talking and not talking.
As a counterpoint to Yoko's intellectual pursuit, Hajime is documenting the sound of the city's varied train lines, from the reverberation of wheels as they leave a station to the curious harmonies of the door chimes. "Cafe Lumiere's" grand metaphor is this intricate network of trains and trolleys that are ever-present in the Tokyo streetscape. It doesn't escape the attentive gaze of Hou's camera that the many lines often cross without connecting.
The film often takes on the hypnotic rhythm of a dream, which mirrors the dense dream life Yoko reveals to Hajime in their offhand conversations. It is as though the real story were taking place in her dreams.
But the unusual way the lengthy shots play out — a train ride where reality turns drowsy, an impromptu meal — is testament to the sometimes forgotten beauty of everyday things.
Ted Fry: tedfry@hotmail.com
"Cafe Lumiere," with Yo Hitoto, Tadanobu Asano, Masato Hagiwara. Directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien, from a screenplay by Hou and Chu T'ien-wen. 103 minutes. Not rated; suitable for mature audiences. In Japanese and Taiwanese with English subtitles. Northwest Film Forum, through Wednesday.