Café Lumière / Kôhî jikô (Hau Hsiao-hsien, 2003)

[manicsounds]

Hou Hsiao Hsien's latest film, shot entirely in Japan as his tribute to Yasujiro Ozu, will get a 2 disc treatment from Shochiku on March 29th.

Extras include the making of documentary "Metro Lumiere", Interviews with cast and crew, Deleted Scenes, Premiere Footage, etc.

No word on English subtitles as of yet, but I will post on it if it is updated sometime soon.

[Guest]

thank you. this is great news... considering the states won't see the film touch shores any time soon.

[manicsounds]

cdjapan is reporting English subtitles, but I can't find any other sites listing them.

[acquarello]

The dialogue is so minimal in Café Lumière though that I can only remember five sequences that would need to be translated (an answering machine message, Yoko meeting Hajime in the bookstore, Hajime showing his digital artwork, the mother visiting Yoko, and the mother borrowing housewares from the neighbor -- the dialogue is pretty funny in this episode though). For the most part, it's a very visual film with the sliverest of plots that is not really enhanced by dialogue except to show the distance of their communication.

[Steven H]

Thanks for that info... if there were any doubts in me that I wouldn't have bought this release, they are now gone.

[leo goldsmith]

I would really not recommend that you buy this if you don't understand Japanese, unless you're just that much of a Hou psycho. While there is relatively little dialogue in the film, you're still not likely to understand what's going on.

And frankly, if Millenium Mambo got a brief theatrical release in NY and at least two readily available (and satisfactory) dvd releases, I don't see why this film would be any different.

[acquarello]

Well of course English subtitles will help, but my point was if you just watch the film with some synopsis or overall gist of the dialogues (like Yoko researching the jazz composer), I don't think it's that daunting a task. I mean, it's not akin to a non-Francophone watching a Rohmer film without subtitles, more like watching an unsubbed Claire Denis film, I think.

[Jun-Dai]

I haven't yet seen a Hou Hsiao-Hsien film that really needed subtitles, so I can't imagine that this one would be that different. In fact, I think that everyone should try watching his films at least once without them, because I think it will lend to a greater appreciation of the film.

[leo goldsmith]

I haven't yet seen a Hou Hsiao-Hsien film that really needed subtitles

Well, I have.

[Steven H]

Psycho? And here I was going to buy you a copy...

[leo goldsmith]

Hey, there are worse things to be than a Hou psycho. Unlike most psychopaths, you probably have a lot of patience and a very long attention span.

In any case, rather than just being argumentative about subtitles, what I mean to suggest is that you could always wait a couple of months for the inevitable release of a version in a language you can understand.

[yoshimori]

But isn't this all moot since, according to CDJAPAN, the r2j HAS English subs?

[iangj]

I haven't yet seen a Hou Hsiao-Hsien film that really needed subtitles, so I can't imagine that this one would be that different. In fact, I think that everyone should try watching his films at least once without them, because I think it will lend to a greater appreciation of the film.

I watched FLOWERS OF SHANGHAI with only Chinese subtitles - and by God, I needed English. I'd agree that CAFE LUMIERE is the one Hou film that you could get by with without subtitles, but you'd still be missing a lot. If this DVD comes through with English subtitles, great; otherwise, do exercise a little patience - it'll turn up eventually (perhaps from Taiwan, as the print shown here - very unusually - had English subtitles).

[manicsounds]

The Japanese DVD has no English subtitles. I saw a copy on the shelves today, and it only had an option for `partial Japanese subtitles` for the movie and the extra material on disc 2.

[ptmd]

Are you sure about this? The Amazon Japan listing still says it has English subtitles.

From the listing:
字幕： 英語

Sometimes the back of the DVDs don't list the full, accurate subtitle options (this happened with the Matsumoto DVD set last spring).

[Guest]

anyone know any info about this release? from the pictures it looks like the boxset has "flowers...," "goodbye south, goodbye" and "good men, good women," along with "coffee jikou."

Hou Hsiao-Hsien Kessakusen DVD Box 1990's + [Coffee Jikou (Cafe Lumiere)] DVD

* Catalog No.: DA-618
* Format: DVD
* Number of discs (or other units): 5
* Release Date: 2005/03/29
* Price: 18800yen (US$ 176.86/ 19740yen Tax incl.)
* Item weight: 600 g

[Michael Kerpan]

I got the DVD from amazon Japan today (amazingly quickly) -- and not only does it not have English subs, I can't figure out how to get the DVD to display the Japanese subs it's supposed to have. Oh well, I could understand most of the dialog in the first couple of scenes (all I sampled so far).

I also got my copy of Kore'eda's "Nobody Knows" -- and it turned out to be the first pressing. ;~}

[kiddish]

I also got my copy of Kore'eda's "Nobody Knows" -- and it turned out to be the first pressing. ;~}

What's the difference between the first pressing and other pressings?

[Michael Kerpan]

As I understood it, the first pressing has a supplemental disc and goodies like postcards. Subsequent pressings were supposed to just include one DVD with the film only.

This set also has a 19 page note by Kore'eda -- I don't think my translation skill are up to tackling something this long, though.

[artfilmfan]

How could so many e-tailers list such incorrect information about English subtitles? What a major disappointment, to have paid so much for a disc with no subs. My copy is supposedly on its way. I hope the movie is good though.

[Michael Kerpan]

How could so many e-tailers list such incorrect information about English subtitles? What a major disappointment, to have paid so much for a disc with no subs. My copy is supposedly on its way. I hope the movie is good though.

Maybe a subbing script will appear on the Internet somewhere? I suspect a decent synopsis would get one through this easily -- based on pre-viewing, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of talking.

I still can't find the _Japanese_ subs. ;~}

[artfilmfan]

The mystery of the missing Japanese subtitles:

From manicsounds' post: "... and it only had an option for `partial Japanese subtitles' ". Is another language (non-Japanese) also spoken in some parts of the film? If so, maybe it's only then that Japanese subtitles are shown.

[manicsounds]

its for the moments of Chinese dialogue spoken over the answering machine.

[Michael Kerpan]

its for the moments of Chinese dialogue spoken over the answering machine

Didn't see this part yet, I guess. (Still only previewed, not watched all the way through). I was beginning to guess that might be the case -- since a little Chinese seemed likely somewhere.

I doubt that a Chinese-speaking Japanese (or a Chinese-speaking American, for that matter) would be familiar with Taiwanese -- unless they were a linguistics grad student or such like (or had family members that came from Taiwan).

I believe Hou Hsiao Hsien may have been the first Taiwanese film maker to use the local dialect in a film (it had previously been strictly forbidden by the Kuomintang).

[leo goldsmith]

I may be wrong, but I don't think Taiwanese was banned entirely, just very restricted (in favor of Mandarin, natch). But as I remember, her boyfriend is Taiwanese and she's researching a pre-'45 Taiwanese composer, so she may well speak Taiwanese/Fujian or something. But then, maybe the composer would more likely have spoken Hakka? What a headache!

It's been a few months since I saw it though, and, speaking neither, I'm damn sure I wouldn't be able to tell the difference.