Is it too slow-paced?
Don't take me wrong. I have had very nice experiences with the cinema of Hou Hsiao Hsien, I really enjoyed Millennium Mambo and Flowers of Shanghai, specially the former. Both very slow paced movies, and many times not much really happened, yet it had this...well...I dunno, hypnotic feeling about it. However, I cannot say I enjoyed Three Times too much, where I feel the slow pace is so extreme it eclipses all the lyrical images, the direction and all those sorts of things. It was simply boring, and I really didn't enjoy it much at all, even thought it had it's merits, of course.
So well, I'd like to give Cafe Lumiere a try. I don't have much experience with Yasujiro Ozu save from Ohayo and Samma no aji (That's "Autum afternoon"), both movies I thought were very moving and beautiful. However, I fear I may find myself stuck again into the horrible boredom that sometimes occurs in asian arthouse cinema, where they get so unessarily slow and lacking any sort of narrative tension it's just dull. I dunno if my question here makes much sense, I guess it's impossible to tell if I'll like or not considering I did love Flowers of Shanghai despite (or shall I say "thanks to") it's pace, and I really didn't like Three Times. But just tell me how you felt about the pace this time.