Café Lumière

A little gem from the director of ‘Millennium Mambo’ and ‘Flowers of Shanghai’. Made as a centenary tribute to the great Japanese filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu, Café Lumière incorporates such Ozu-esque elements as the relationship between aging parents and their grown child (here, an independent young woman who’s determined to stay that way), quiet, unhurried drinking scenes, and of course the coming and going of trains. That said, Hou isn’t indulging in imitation here – their aesthetic sensibilities simply make a good fit. Seeming to focus on very little – mundane conversations, banal details – and maintaining a constant equilibrium throughout, Hou somehow reveals so much of the human heart.