Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s Cafe Lumiere
Joanne Leow
A view of Tokyo not quite familiar
Trains, yes. But not the myriad cafes
tiny apartments
The low magical cadence of a man’s
voice speaking an intimate Japanese.
Bookstore after bookstore
Packing page against page
Line after line of an undecipherable language.
To capture the quietude of reality
The lack of sound is also a sound
And putting the laundry up is
beautiful – if filmed just so.
That one low angle with the light
seeping through the unworn clothes. |