Tatsuro Kimchi uses a very interesting arrangement of elements to form the composition of this illustration. Firstly, the viewer is given a very voyeuristic viewpoint in relation to the characters, from they were behind the bar of the cafe, looking through the shelves. The characters look quite far away from the viewer, made clear by the larger saucers and tea pot in the foreground, and then the tea cups in the mid ground, being the same size as the people.
It is interesting how overlapping has been used. The shelves cut the man's head from his body and also overlap the women a lot too, perhaps solely to create the voyeuristic feeling and sense of distance. this top right corner remains very busy as a result also, especially when compared to the left side as a whole. In this vain it is bold for him to have left so much empty space in the top left corner. This could have a narrative purpose to it; the way I personally read it is that the women is perhaps fleeing loneliness, represented by this use of blank space, and is leaning towards friendship and company, shown by the man and the busy right hand side.
Your eye follows a kind of zig zag up to the couple, lead by the corner of the counter top in the bottom left and then picked up by the diagonal of the perspective on the bar. The are a lot of very angular shapes in this composition also, but that are balanced by the people and the curved shapes of the saucers and tea cups.
I feel like it is an interesting and effective composition in it's breaking of the rules of balance and harmony. There is obviously a disjoined undertone to this image and an intriguing narrative is suggested as a result.
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