Yoko (Hitoto Yo) is a young Japanese writer researching the life of Taiwanese musician Jiang Wen-ye who was popular in Japan during the 1930s. Raised by her uncle in Yubari but living in Tokyo with her father and stepmother, Yoko becomes friends with Hajime (Asano Tadanobu), the owner of a secondhand bookstore. They often meet in her favorite coffee shop, making small talk and enjoying the passing scene. He is a train buff who spends his days riding the subway, recording the sound of trains, public address announcements and the conversations of passengers. Though they are best friends, he is startled to find out that she is pregnant by a Taiwanese whom, against her strict parents' wishes, she does not want to marry... Acutely observed and exquisitely realized, Hou Hsiao-Hsien's 16th film is a loving tribute to the great Japanese filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu. The film, the first by Hou to be shot in a foreign location, pays homage to Ozu by depicting themes repeated in many of his films: relationships between aging parents, the marriage plans of a grown child, the coming and going of trains, and the quiet contemplation of everyday life.