Out 10 June /last update

Café Lumière (Dir: Hou Hsiao-hsien): Japanese pop singer Yo Hitoto plays Yoko, an intelligent, independent young woman who has carved out an unhurried, self-sufficient life for herself in contemporary Tokyo. She has close friends (amongst them soulmate and bookshop owner Tadanobu Asano) and a loving family but on the whole she is content to move at her own pace, resisting the pull of a conventional career or romance. However, an unexpected pregnancy forces her to think about her life in a way she never has before. Hou’s tribute to Yasujiro Ozu is described as ‘understated and contemplative on the surface as one of Ozu’s own masterpieces, yet filled with penetrating observations about its characters and contemporary urban existence. Detail: it was shot by In the Mood for Love cinematographer Mark Lee Pin-bing. At the ICA (see links)///

Mr and Mrs Smith (Dir: Doug Liman. With Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt): The much anticipated Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie duet, who recently sent a horde of giraffes in Africa running scared in the savannah, hits the screens in London. Reviews have been surprisingly good; perhaps the critics who wrote about it were in need of some sexual boost and got what they needed from these two bisexually-appealing stars.