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

[iangj]

It's been a few months for me too; but I can tell the difference and I'm pretty sure it was Mandarin Chinese.

You're right that Taiwanese was "restricted" in favour of Mandarin, though the effect was close to banning -- forbidden in schools or in the broadcast media, for example. Nowadays Taiwanese is ubiquitous -- TV programmes, commercials, pop songs, part of the ongoing "Taiwanisation" of culture and society.

[leo goldsmith]

I have a couple of strange requests for those who own this dvd. It's been a while since I saw the film, and of course I did not take very specific notes at the time. However, I may be writing about it and I wanted some information about it:

1. Probably a pain in the ass, but I would be very grateful for a not-very-specific synopsis of the film. Ideally I would like a list of the scenes in the film and a very brief description of what happens (i.e. "Yoko visits Hajime in the bookstore, gives him the watch").

2. Less involved: a list of the corporate sponsors thanked in the film's credits. Hopefully these should be recognizable by the logos. No need to be exhaustive here -- a sampling will do.

Anyway, I really would appreciate this if anyone has the time or inclination to do it. If I thought it would arrive in time, I would have ordered the dvd and done all this myself. In any case, many thanks if anyone can provide this information.

If you like, you can PM me any info or email me at leogoldsmith at hotmail dot com. Or you could just post here.

[Steven H]

There is now a Chinese (?) release of Cafe Lumiere at yesasia.com. Google searches for the company "Ji Guang Music Co. Ltd" turned up nothing, so I have no clue about the quality, but the price is much better than the japanese version, and it's listed as having english subtitles.

Thanks to shihlun from the Beaver group for the tip.

[Michael Kerpan]

> and it's listed as having english subtitles.

Of course the Japanese DVD was listed as having English subtitles-- until it appeared in the stores and didn't. have them.

In other Hou news, Volume 1 of HHH's films (the only volume released to date, alas) is now back in print:

(Boys from Fengkuei, Summer at Grandpa's, Dust in the Wind, Time to LIve...)

[iangj]

There is now a Chinese (?) release of Cafe Lumiere at yesasia.com. Google searches for the company "Ji Guang Music Co. Ltd" turned up nothing, so I have no clue about the quality, but the price is much better than the japanese version, and it's listed as having english subtitles.

The cover on yesasia.com is identical to the Taiwanese release, published by sinomovie.com, HHH's company. This claims to have Chinese and English subtitles, which would be right as this is what the film had when released in Taiwan. But the real question is whether these subtitles are separate options on the DVD or fixed together like you get on cheaper Hong Kong DVDs. Also, the back cover has "4:3", which for Taiwanese DVDs either means full-frame, or non-anamorphic widescreen. It's probably the latter, but as this is upper-priced for the Taiwanese market (close to US$25) I'm not rushing to find out. Besides, if there's any chance of the film coming to a cinema near year, I'd really resist buying a possibly inferior DVD. Or wait for a better DVD to appear.

[artfilmfan]

Watched this Japanese DVD (the film only) this morning. The film was made as a tribute to Yasujiro Ozu. However, one distinctive element of Ozu's film-making technique/style (evidenced in films made during the second half of his career) is surprisingly absent: characters looking directly at the camera when they speak. I saw none of that in this film. I went through the whole film without getting a good look at the actress' face. This film, IMO, is distinctively HHH, not Ozu.

[Michael Kerpan]

Peter Bradshaw witlessly trashes Hou Hsiao Hsien's utterly wonderful "Cafe Lumiere" in this week's Guardian.

[acquarello]

I have to disagree with your curt dismissal of the Bradshaw piece. Both Bradshaw and artfilmfan have articulated precisely what I find wanting in Café Lumière. As a Ozu-homage, it simply isn't. It's very distinctly a Hou film using "Ozu-ish" elements which are no more "distinctly Ozu" than they are "distinctly Japanese". There's nothing wrong with that, but I think that the repeated references to this film as being his "tribute to Ozu" is part of its own undoing.

[Michael Kerpan]

As to "Cafe Lumiere", I think the Ozu connection doesn't particularly help or hurt the film. As to others' expectations, that''s their problem. ;~}

How could anyone familiar with HHH's work have expected him to imitate Ozu in any obvious fashion? (BTW, I had no trouble seeing the heroine's face -- and I don't have an especially large television). You really think Bradshaw's dismissal of thios as utterly worthless is defensible?

As to Bradshaw's cliched and inaccurate maunderings about Ozu -- what on earth do you find admirable?

For some more eloquent and measured comments on Bradshaw's utterances than I could manage.

[acquarello]

This part.

...it's more like a homage to Hou Hsiao-hsien, bordering on malign parody

[Michael Kerpan]

This part.

...it's more like a homage to Hou Hsiao-hsien, bordering on malign parody

I couldn't disagree more. It's a snotty, critically unproductive potshot. I can't think of any Bradshaw review that has EVER impressed me. But this is the stupidest and snidest I've seen yet.

[leo goldsmith]

I'm on Michael's side here. The marketing of this film as a simple tribute to Ozu is quite misleading, and as I said in my own review, it mainly serves to point up the great and obvious differences between the works of the two directors. Critics and scholars of all stripes continue to compare Hou to Ozu in a very uncomplicated way, and if nothing else, this film serves to show how limited that comparison is. (Hou himself had never even seen an Ozu film until well into his career, and once he did, he was quite specific about the ways in which Ozu influenced him).

Beyond this, however, I found the film to be quite beautiful and, with its themes of the personal in the historical, and in its gesture towards Japan and the Asian-Pacific region as a whole, very much in line with Hou's previous work, especially his most recent.

[acquarello]

Since you responded between edits, here's what I added:

Speaking of which, your post on that Yahoo groups mentions items like getting chracters' names wrong and I don't see that in Bradshaw's 2 paragraph 4-6 sentence blurb. Are you referring to another, longer piece than the one you linked to? It would help to be on the same page to know where the arguments lie. As a blurb, Bradshaw's piece is perfectly functional.

[Michael Kerpan]

He call's Hara's character Toriko -- in boith his blurb and in his recent piece. ; ~}

The piece on Ozu ellipsis (and I) linked to should have 8 paragraphs or so, btw.

[acquarello]

Are we reading the same thing? Honest question, not sarcasm. Here's what I'm reading:

When Todd Haynes's masterly Douglas Sirk pastiche Far From Heaven came out, I wondered if another director might attempt something similar with Yasujiro Ozu. Now Hou Hsiao-hsien has directed a notional homage to Ozu in honour of his centenary and the resulting, contemporary-set film is a torpid and very uninteresting work.

There are references to trains - an Ozu motif - and some low-angle Japanese interiors composed in dutiful imitation of the Master, though he doesn't attempt Ozu's distinctive direct sight-lines into camera. As for Ozu's superb simplicity, clarity and explicit emotional power - well, these are not forthcoming. With its exasperatingly aimless scenes and deeply unrewarding dullness, it's more like a homage to Hou Hsiao-hsien, bordering on malign parody.

I don't see Hara or Toriko or any plot anything.

[Michael Kerpan]

Oh, I see. The Ozu errors are in the Ozu piece.

[leo goldsmith]

It also should be said that Hou has been doing the train thing (and the clothesline thing) forever, which is another (superficial) reason why people compare him to Ozu. It also seems to explain why Hou's films are so popular in Japan. Apparently, in the '80s, package tours were set up for Japanese tourists who wanted to visit the places in Hou's early films.

[Michael Kerpan]

Bradshaw also pissed all over another of my favorite recent films (Rivette's latest).

Philip French in the Observer was equally dismissive.

French actually goes Bradshaw one better, esentially disimissing all Rivette's work since "Belle noiseuse", re-posted in its own thread.

It also should be said that Hou has been doing the train thing (and the clothesline thing) forever, which is another (superficial) reason why people compare him to Ozu. It also seems to explain why Hou's films are so popular in Japan. Apparently, in the '80s, package tours were set up for Japanese tourists who wanted to visit the places in Hou's early films.

The earliest train scene in HHH that I can think of is the one at the beginning of "Dust in the Wind" (which he seems to refer to -- in an offbeat fashion -- in "Goodbye South, Goodbye").

[acquarello]

Ah, that explains the disconnect. I guess I just don't understand getting worked up over any critic's opinion, but then, that's why I watch as much as I can, with or without any critical reputation.

[leo goldsmith]

This is off-topic-ish, but what the hell. Let's talk shop.

Ah, that explains the disconnect. I guess I just don't understand getting worked up over any critic's opinion, but then, that's why I watch as much as I can, with or without any critical reputation.

That's a valid point of view, of course, but why review films, then?

[acquarello]

Well this goes back to the circular, raison d'être discussions on how one defines true film criticism versus film review (even though everyone is called a film critic). I always thought I was deconstructing film, not reviewing it, though with an understanding towards some level of accessibility (Rosenbaum recently talked about this in his explanation of star ratings).

Anyway, unfortunately, these arguments have taken over another forum that I'm involved for the better part of three weeks, and I really don't have the energy to revisit this. I know that sounds rude, but it isn't meant to be.

[leo goldsmith]

It doesn't sound rude at all. Besides, I'm not particularly interested in broad raison d'être arguments either. I was just curious why a film critic would say that a film critic's opinion doesn't or shouldn't matter very much. Now this is not to say that you think (as some surely do) that film criticism is pointless -- unless you're in it for the money, glamor, and women. I suppose you are, like me, ambivalent about it.

Anyway, to get back to Mr. Bradshaw, I would imagine that one reason for his particularly negative review is a kind of backlash sentiment against the seemingly fawning praise of Hou's work by people like Tony Rayns and Kent Jones. For my part, I always like to be anti-backlash!

[artfilmfan]

... it's more like a homage to Hou Hsiao-hsien...

It's like my mind has been read! I've been thinking about the same thing. If Ozu were alive and saw this HHH film, here's what I think he'd say to HHH: You did a fine job in paying homage to yourself!

Here are a few things in this film that I can think of at the moment that illustrate a homage to HHH:

1. A scene with a train crossing a bridge, with a body of water in the foreground. (Reminiscent of a scene from one of the films in the HHH boxset; "Summer at Grandpa's", I think).

2. A scene with a very large tree in a farmland, under which there are tombs. (Reminiscent of the very large tree, also in the middle of a farmland and under which there is a religious shrine, in "Summer at Grandpa's).

3. A scene with a train approaching a station, with the camara pointed ahead of the train. (Reminiscent of the opening scene in "Dust in the Wind")

4. Dressing up the main actress in a white blouse and a black skirt. (Reminiscent of the actress in "A Time to Live and a Time to Die" (near the end) and "Dust in the Wind" (at the beginning)). I find this to be the most non-Japanese aspect of all in this film. While the combination of a white blouse and a black skirt might be very popular in other Asian countries (especially for school uniforms), I think it is rarely used in Japan. I've been to Japan and never seen people wearing that combination. With that attire, the actress in "Cafe Lumiere" looks very Chinese.

I haven't read the article that people referred to above; but I plan to read it soon.

P.S. Hey MEK, if Setsuko Hara (I hope I spell her name correctly) had been filmed in Ozu's films the same way the actress in "Cafe Lumiere" was filmed, I'm quite sure you would not have seen those beautiful smiles of hers

[leo goldsmith]

I haven't read the article that people referred to above; but I plan to read it soon.

Your post is longer than the article, by the way.

[artfilmfan]

I've just added a P.S. to my post, to make it even longer than the article.