Is this your first Hou? If so Cafe Lumiere probably not a good place to start with him. As to your questions, read these reviews:
No, this isn’t my first Hou film.
I haven’t finished the reviews, but I will. Thanks Columbia
And trains. With Ozu you can’t forget the trains.
The ending brings me near tears. I do love this film.
Those are good reviews. Now I have another film I want to rewatch soon.
Doinel, yeah, I looked at it that way. She is trying to put together a history which is a narrative. He is putting together a map of the moment. It’s like our narratives are no longer coherent, but our spatial relations are, even if they will soon be different.
How do all of these storylines/characters connect with each other? And if they don’t, why are these three specific storylines in the same film?—-
Partly, I think, they (like Jiang Wenye’s music) dramatize the uncertainty of the relationship(s) of Japan-Taiwan-China cultural dynamics.
What is the significance of trains? (I know that the Lumiere brothers made a film on a train arriving, but I’m not sure how this connects to Ozu or the film.)—-
They’re echoing Ozu’s “pillow shots”:
Also, I think, they’re suggesting movement between cultures, from one relationship to another, etc.
What is the significance of the Taiwanese pianist?—-
Broadly speaking, I would say Jiang represents the attempt to negotiate the rapid convergences and dissonances of Chinese, Taiwanese, and Japanese culture. As David Der-wei Wang put it: "Jiang’s modernist sensibility demonstrated his colonial and cosmopolitan bearings . . . his engagement with Confucian musicology brought about an unlikely dialogue between Chinese cultural essentialism and Japanese pan-Asianism . . . his lyrical vision was occasioned by, and confined to, historical contingencies.
Thanks for the interesting comments. I still have the disc, so I might try to rewatch it with the comments in mind.
Let me know if think James Crawford’s idea that there is an inversion of Tokyo Story makes sense. I cannot remember it quite clear enough to really have an opinion, but the idea appeals to me.
Also, Jazz, have you seen Tokyo Twilight? It’s the most obvious point of reference in Ozu’s work.
What do you guys recommend me to watch before I watch Cafe Lumiere? I’ve seen Flight of The Red Balloon and that’s about it… I really want to see Cafe Lumiere though but I don’t know if I should watch another one of his films first.
Personally, Dylan, I don’t think it’s terribly important what order you see Hou’s films in, though it might not be a bad idea to go back to some of his earlier work like Puppetmaster and Good Men, Good Women just so you get some sense of his evolution as a filmmaker.
The best way to go through Hou is chronologically from The Boys From Fengkuei.
this thread might help you decide how best to go about it.
No, I have not seen Tokyo Twilight. That’s an Ozu flick?
Yes. It’s included in the Late Ozu Eclipse set. It involves an unplanned pregnacy, generational conflict . . . and trains.
Jazzaloha
I saw this a couple of days ago, and I’m pretty sure I’m not going to take the time to figure this out, so I thought we could discuss it here.
(spoilers)
Here’s what I understand:
Hou was commissioned to make a film honoring Yasujiro Ozu. There are at least three story lines in the film:
Yoko gets pregnant from her Taiwanese boyfriend and her parents are concerned about this, particularly since she refuses to marry him;
Yoko is doing research on a Taiwanese pianist (a real person) who lived in Japan and married a Japanese woman;
Hajime, Yoko’s bookstore owner friend, goes around recording the sounds of trains in Japan.
Now here are some questions I’m too lazy to work through:
How do all of these storylines/characters connect with each other? And if they don’t, why are these three specific storylines in the same film?
What is the significance of trains? (I know that the Lumiere brothers made a film on a train arriving, but I’m not sure how this connects to Ozu or the film.)
What is the significance of the Taiwanese pianist?
The thing that I understand the best is the segment on Yoko and her parents. This seems like a modern update on themes that Ozu seemed interested in.