This is the film that took me longest to see from Hou...
and im a huge fan of his ....dust in the wind is one of my fav films of all time
but i can see how this film may not be liked by a lot of people....a lot of its themes and aspects...are very very very very OZU
i really think if you dont know much of Ozus work...then you really wont get it
I don't think that's exactly true. I have seen some Ozu, not a lot, and while the film's supposed to be a tribute to him, it's still a pretty original work on it's own. The only similarities I note is the plain nature of the staging, and dealing with themes of family, tradition, and everyday life, but Hou adds A LOT of his own to the mix. There are a lot of camera pans in "Cafe Lumiere", something Ozu rarely, if ever, does. And Hou doesn't do Ozu's famous shoot-from-the-floor and get the whole body in the shot technique. Neither Hou nor Ozu do many close-ups, but in general the compositions in this film are not really comparable to Ozu's (which are pretty distinct).
Overall, I'd say the main comparison between this film and Ozu's work is that they are both in the "observing everyday life" category, but I think within that there's a lot of places to go, and I think this film definitely stands on it's own. I don't think someone HAS to have seen Ozu to "get" this film, although it makes for an interesting comparison, but honestly, I don't find them to be too comparable. I'd actually say the style of this film was pretty comparable to "Millennium Mambo" (the only other Hou I've seen), and that wasn't intended as an Ozu tribute like "Lumiere" was.
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Oogly Boogly!
yeah i know what you mean,but i didnt mean it that way
i just mean in terms of pace and the idea of "nothingness" sometimes scenes will seemalmost pointless to the plot
some ozu did very much in his career....a hen in the wind....late spring....there was a father....and you can go one, oze had scenes where nothing really happend that would benifita plot
hou didthis a lot too....i think if you havnt got the taste buds for ozu....then you wont for this
I have seen plenty of films by Ozu (at least all those released by Criterion) yet I couldn't see any connection between Ozu works and this mess by Hou Hsiao-hsien.
Yeah, there are some vague links to Ozu films here and there. But let's face it, this movie is entirely a Hsiao-hsien work. Ozu supposedly worked as the inspiration for this flick. However I won't blame Ozu for this over-pretentious and irrelevant stinker.
I really don't agree. I've seen a fair number of Ozu movies, and I just didn't feel that this had anything in common with him and his style. If Ozu wasn't mentioned in the opening, I never would have thought he was an inspiration for this movie.
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