Café Lumière

Name: Café Lumière
Genre: Drama
Released: June 10, 2005
Duration: 103 min
Rating: 80

2005

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 9 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 10 Ratings

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7.3

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7.3	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 10 Ratings

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Movie Details & Credits

Release Date: June 10, 2005

Summary: 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 experiencesA 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)… Expand

Director: Hsiao-hsien Hou

Genre(s): Drama

Runtime: 103 min

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Critic Reviews

100

David Sterritt

Hou's sensitivity plus Ozu's inspiration equals sublimity of sight and sound. Read full review

100

Jonathan Rosenbaum

Hou's best film since "The Puppetmaster" (1993). It's also his most minimalist effort to date, slow to reveal its depths and beauties, and it marks a rejuvenation of his art. Read full review

Michael Wilmington

It's a film objet d'art to contemplate and treasure. Read full review

J. Hoberman

Exquisitely understated. Read full review

Dana Stevens

Café Lumière stands in relation to "Tokyo Story" as a faint, diminished echo. It is nonetheless a fascinating curiosity, a chance to witness one major filmmaker paying tribute to another in the form of a rigorously minor film. Read full review

TV Guide Magazine Ken Fox

The film is an original work by a filmmaker who throughout his career has absorbed the best of what Ozu had to teach, and as such it stands as beautiful tribute from one master to another. Read full review

Jay Weissberg

Hou fans will find what they're looking for; others will wonder when the action starts. Read full review

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User Reviews

TNgo

Jan 27, 2006

Wonderful. Hou pays homage to Ozu, but manages to evoke a message of his own.

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ChadS.

May 12, 2006

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. 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.… Expand

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MSantell

Jan 6, 2006

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. 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.… Expand

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