Director: Hou Hsiao-hsien
Script: Chu Tien-wen, Hou Hsiao-hsien
Cinematographer: Li Ping-pin
Editing: Liao Ching-song
Sound: Tu Duu-chih
Music: Hototo Yo
Cast: Hitoto Yo, Asano Tadanobu, Hagiwara Masato, Kobayashi Nenji, Yo Kimiko
Production: Shochiku Co. Ltd, Asahi Shimbun, Sumitomo Corporation
Distribution:
Diaphana
155 rue du Fbg St Antoine
75011 Paris
France
Tel: 0033 1.53.46.66.66
Fax: 0033 1.53.46.62.29
Mail: [email protected]
www.diaphana.fr
Year: 2003
35 mm, Colour, 109 min
OV Japanese with French Subtitles
Yoko, a young Japanese journalist, has come back from her stay in Taiwan. She meets her friend Hajime who holds a bookshop in the second-hand booksellers' area in Tokyo. Hajime is a silent boy who likes to record the sound of trains crossing the city. He helps Yoko in her research about self-taught Taiwanese composer Jiang Wenye who lived in Japan. Together, they wander about in Tokyo and stop in the cafes where the musician used to go. Yoko was brought up by her uncle in the Hokkaido Island. After a long separation, she goes back to Takasaki where her father lives with his new wife. During their conversation, she tells them she is pregnant and the child's father is Taiwanese.
Café Lumière is a tribute to Ozu Yasujiro. The film was an order from the great Japanese firm Shoshiku for the celebration of Ozu's birth centenary. It was entirely shot in Japan, with Japanese actors speaking only Japanese.
