Dolls (dir. Takeshi Kitano, 2002). Though disturbingly sentimental coming from a man who has directed such films as Hana-Bi (which, I feel obligated to mention, features a scene where a man gets stabbed in the eye with chopsticks), Dolls is a masterpiece of editing even if it is a little underdeveloped and unfocused. Time, memory, and regret lie at the elegiac intersection of three tangentially related love stories, which finally collapse into failed (re)connection and denied redemption. The deliberate pace conveys a sense of surmounting hopelessness and also emphasizes Katsumi Yanagishima's delicate photography and the vivid, expressive palette. Though not Kitano's best work, it opens up new avenues for his future work to explore with (hopefully) more precision and control. B.
Cafe Lumiere (dir. Hou Hsiao-Hsien, 2003). Hou's film was dedicated to the memory of Yasujiro Ozu and released at the centenary of his birth. Like the esteemed master, mono no aware has clearly informed Hou's aesthetic, but beyond their shared preoccupation with the passage of time, a few minor plot elements (specifically recalling Ozu's Tokyo Story and Tokyo Twilight), and a few paraphrased shots, no one is going to mistake Hou's homage for one of Ozu's own films. The key difference (in addition to mise-en-scene) is that Ozu's films took place as Japan was negotiating its future between modernization and tradition, while Hou's film takes place after the negotiation in a firmly modern, Westernized country. Hou's characters tentatively use technology to cope with their alienation from a vanished culture and loss of meaning, while knowing that it cannot replace their need for human connection. Instead, they are adrift in an empty world where time marks not progress but missed opportunities and disappointment. A-.
