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source: Shoplifters

Shoplifters: A non-nuclear family drama infused with humour set in Tokyo. We have Grandma Hatsue (Kirin Kiki)who subsidies the rest of the clan with her pension, the father Osamu (Lily Franky) is a casual labourer, he teaches son Shota (Kairi Jó) to shoplift while he causes distractions, mother Nobuyo (Sakura Ando) works in a laundry and steals valuables left in pockets, her sister Aki (Mau Matsuko) serves as a hostess in a bar. Their relationships is left open to question but they function as a family. Coming home from a shoplifting expedition, Osamu and Shota find a cold and hungry young girl, Yuri (Miyu Sasaki), they bring her home and feed her. They try to return her home but Nobuyo hers Yuri's parents quarrelling and violence occurring. They decide to keep Yuri after discovering bruises on her arms. Life continues, Yuri becomes part of the family, Shota uses her as distraction during pilfering escapades. Then Yuri appears on TV, social services have discovered that she has been missing for two months without her parents reporting it. A tale of family life in Japan, how family isn't always those who are related to you, rather they are the ones who care for you. Even when Osamu is injured at work and Nobuyo loses her job they don't abandon Yuri. There is an interdependence going on here, Grandma doesn't want to die alone so she allows this ersatz family to live with her. But even she has her own secrets. At different levels the houses adult inhabitants are exploiting as well as caring for eachother. This is at times a satire about Japanese family life and the dichotomies between supposed familial responsibilities in theory and in actuality. A great performance from Kirin Kiki in her final role before she died earlier this year. Kairi and Miyu are covoncing as children who have had a hard life but are moving beyond it. Mostly cramped shots in the small house or dark shops contrasted with wider, brighter, pans along the banks of the River. Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, Shoplifters deservedly won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2018. 9/10.

After filming several high-profile, slow-paced family dramas, the director Hirokazu Koreeda finally broke through the comfort zone he set up for himself in recent years. Through more skillful techniques and a more sagacious perspective, the tenacity and courage in "Nobody Knows" finally yielded an unhappy but very profound ending in the film. Even though the reconciliation between the individual and the world is no longer given hope, Hirokazu Koreeda's past unsolved thoughts resonate in a virtual space.. Therefore, it is not a bragging to call this film his masterpiece.

I'm putting down 8/10 for a "rating", but basically I have no idea how to put a movie like this numerically in comparison with just about any Hollywood effort. It really belongs on a different scale entirely. My wife and I are just back from seeing it at our local art-cinema theater and we liked it very much. Stylistically, for other recent movies it's close to "Roma" and also the American indie film "Leave No Trace" as bittersweet, unhurried explorations of quite real human beings working hard to survive. "Shoplifters" follows the lives of a makeshift "family" living in the underside of an unnamed Japanese city (the particular place isn't important). The adults scrape by with low-security, low-paid jobs, the grandma has a small pension income, and the kids are vagabonds. They get by in a crowded, ramshackle tenement and the two kids are busy picking up the techniques of petty shoplifting from the adults. We slowly learn that almost none of them are actually related; they've haphazardly chosen each other to live with in a framework a little outside the margins of normal society. All of them, in some way, have left or been taken out of abusive or dangerous previous relationships. Throughout their exploits, told by a long series of short vignette scenes, is that they indeed feel close bonds but that their "family" is built, not by blood, but by the constant kindness they show towards each other. They survive on the margins, but they love and are loved. The second and much more subliminal big message I took away from this film was its ambience: it's quiet. Scenes that would -- in a Hollywood film -- predictably lead to shouting matches or displays of anger or confrontations with authority, *never* take that cheap overdramatized route here. When confronted with tough questions, the main characters answer reflectively and with spare honesty. Even out on the streets with traffic and lots of people around, it's quiet. What a change. Toward the end of the film, the main characters are being patiently interviewed by social services staff in a series of magnetically powerful scenes. The "family" members' answers are often startling: "Why were you teaching your son to shoplift?" "I ... didn't know anything else to teach him." or: "Didn't you take your grandma and threw her away?" "No. Someone else threw her away; we took her in." or: "The child belongs with her mother." "No. Giving birth doesn't make her a mother." From small glimpses like this, a window opens into an entire world of human nature.

I think the reviews already sums up quite good how stunning this film is. In addition to extraordinary cinematographic work and music (!!!), Hirokazu Koreeda raises a lot of difficult, though important questions, leaving you thinking about your own moral values and the idea of a family. All wrapped up in a simple, well written and beautiful plot. However, I would like to draw som more attention to Kirin Kiki and yet another one of her amazing interpretations. Only four months after the premier at Cannes, Kiki died, at the age of 75. In some strange way I get the sense that both Koreeda and Kiki somehow knew this was going to happen, during the creation of Shoplifters. It may sound far fetched, but keep it in mind while watching.

Greetings again from the darkness. We typically think of family as blood relatives, those affiliated by marriage or adoption, and those funky cousins (sometimes 'removed') that, according to the family tree, are supposedly related to us. Expert Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda (LIKE FATHER LIKE SON, 2013) presents a story that will have you questioning whether the strongest connection is blood, heart, or money. We first witness 'father' Osamu Shibata (played by Lily Franky) and adolescent 'son' Shota (Jyo Kairi) in a well-coordinated shoplifting maneuver at the local grocery store. On the way home they stumble across a shivering child, maybe 4 or 5 years old, who has been seemingly abandoned by her parents. They take her home to warm her up and feed her, and it's here we discover the multi-generational family living in a tiny apartment. This family also consists of 'grandmother' Hatsue (an excellent Kirin Kiki), 'mother/wife' Nobuyo (Sakura Ando), and teenage daughter Aki (rising star Mayu Matsuoka). When the family discovers signs of abuse on the little girl Yuri (Miyu Sasaki), they decide to keep her - less an informal adoption than an admission to the club. See, this family lives in poverty, and finds comfort in working odd jobs and shoplifting. They do bad things out of necessity, in a kind of twisted 'honor among thieves'. Each person, regardless of age is expected to contribute to the team. The eldest provides a steady income through her deceased ex-husband's pension, and by scamming mercy money from his second family. Osamu and Nobuyo have regular part time jobs, while Aki works in a sexy chat room. Shota polishes his shoplifting skills and even tiny Yuri begins to learn by watching him. Everyone contributes in what can be described as a pyramid scheme of petty cons. As the film progresses, we get to know each of the characters and begin to care about them ... rooting for them to find success. Writer-Director Kore-eda draws us in with subtle scenes of interaction between the characters, each willing to sacrifice for the other. He raises the question on whether choosing one's family might create a stronger bond than those blood ties. What really seems to matter is where we feel we belong, and where are accepted. The film won the Palme d'Or at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, and it's likely due to the devastating and expert final act. In a dramatic shift in tone, true character is revealed - it's a shocking revelation on some fronts, and fully expected on others. Each family member has a backstory that slowly unfolds through the first two acts, and then abruptly slaps us upside the head as the film nears conclusion. There are many social aspects to be discussed after this one, including how the child welfare system (seemingly regardless of country) sometimes works against a child's best interest, even with the best intentions. This is one that will grab your heart and then stick with you for a while.

The storytelling is very powerful. It slowly puts you in a situation that you are comfortable with, and step by step reveals a hidden layer. It simply challenges what the society defines as bond, connection, family, etc, and how laws conform to that. One of the best movies I've watched in the recent years.

Excellently scripted and full of impressive subtleties, Shoplifters is a harrowing look at a working-class family in Tokyo, in the business of trying to simply make ends meet day by day. At first glance this may seem like just a story of this family resorting to petty crime, but as the plot gradually unfolds the reasons for the behaviour and decisions of each character is revealed, and al the dots begin to connect amidst this struggle. Certainly seeing some of the characters getting involved in decidedly immoral behaviour- for example, the shoplifting carried out by the young boy and his father (as the title indications) and one young lady making a living off involvement in the * industry, can be uncomfortable to see and it does present the characters in this film as morally dubious. But the whole situation that these people are in, and partially choose to create themselves, is eventually presented to the audience with unassuming subtlety, which is beautiful to watch. The overall tone of this film is fairly grim, and there is definitely raw emotional power to many scenes, but the acting and the script never at any point becomes overly sentimental or tragic. The scenarios and emotions that each character faces is really presented as it is, but of course with much delicacy. This film may be relatively slow-paced and not visually stunning, but is breathtaking nonetheless. It's no wonder why it managed to win the Palme D'or! It's definitely going to end up as one of the best films of the year and will probably be recognised as a classic long in the future. Regardless of which culture you're from, I highly recommend checking this film out. It should deeply resonate with and impress any film lover.