| Café Lumière | |
| Distributor: | Shochiku |
| Runtime: | 103 minutes |
| Country: | Japan, Taiwan |
| Language: | Japanese |
is a 2003 Japanese film directed by Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien for Shochiku as homage to Yasujirō Ozu, with direct reference to the late director's Tokyo Story (1953). It premiered at a festival commemorating the centenary of Ozu's birth. It was nominated for Golden Lion at the 2004 Venice Film Festival.The film, with an all-Japanese cast, is set in Tokyo, where it was shot.[1]
The story revolves around Yoko Inoue (played by Yo Hitoto), a young Japanese woman doing research on Taiwanese composer Jiang Wen-Ye, whose work is featured on the soundtrack.[2] The late composer's Japanese wife and daughter also make appearances as themselves.
Café Lumière was placed at 98 on Slant Magazine's best films of the 2000s.[3]
In 2019, director Steve McQueen named it as the best film of the 21st century, describing it as "[a] film that happens without you knowing."[4]
Another review finds obvious similarities with Hou's earlier work in this homage to Ozu: "Visually the film is very much in line with other late 90s/early 00s Hou films, sporting rather long takes and an almost static, slow-moving camera observing the characters."[5]
An analysis in 3 Quarks Daily explains: