Café Lumière

Apart from being an intimate portrait of the young Japanese woman Yoko, this film is also a tribute to the important Japanese filmmaker Yasujiro Ozuo on the occasion of the year of his 100th birthday. Working on a book on a cult musician of the 30-ies, Juang Wenye, Yoko meets the antique-shop owner Hajim thanks to whom she grows to realize that he life strained between Yoko's countryside family, her friends and her work is too hectic. At the same time she finds out that she is pregnant with somebody she doesn't love and she realizes she would like to change her life. The subtle story is told as a fascinating adventure of searching for one's own identity in a modern city full of high-speed trains.

Hou Hsiao-Hsien (1947)
The open inspiration by Yasujiro Ozuo's films is just another proof an outstanding talent of the director who values highly not only personal style, but also historical memory - not only the "great" one, but also the cinematic one. The author's fascination with trains and other modern high-tech elements definitively blends with his fascination for the brittle human soul continuously subjected to severe trials of the modern times.