Before making the shortlist for the Best Foreign Language category in the next Oscars, as well as receiving a Golden Globe nomination, Hirokazu Kore-eda’s latest film, Shoplifters, notably won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. It’s about a family in Tokyo living in poverty, and as a result, they’ve resort to shoplifting as a means to get by. One night, as the father, Osamu Shibata (Lily Franky) and his son, Shota (Jyo Kairi), are making their way home, they find a young girl, Yuri (Miyu Sasaki) sitting alone and in the cold. They decide to invite her for warm meal, before taking her back home, but as Osamu and his wife, Nobuyo (Sakura Ando), reach Yuri’s home, they hear harsh and violently abusive language from inside the home. So, they decide to let Yuri stay with them.
The film is one that isn’t too reliant on plot, instead taking its time to focus on the various individuals in the household, which – aside from the ones already mentioned – also include the grandmother, Hatsue (Kirin Kiki), Nobuyo’s sister, Aki (Mayu Matsuoka). The film plays on your assumptions in terms of the nature of who these characters are, their relationships, and their past. It meticulously peels each layer slowly and methodically as the film goes on, each layer more challenging than the last.
Kore-eda uses that same flow when it comes to the way the film plays out tonally. It’s a largely quiet and gentle film, opening with a sly and amusing scene of Osamu and Shota stealing items from a local supermarket. There’s an understated whimsy to the proceedings that only ever hint at the harsh realities surrounding them. It lulls you into this false sense of security as you spend time with these characters as they go by their day-to-day, and being endeared by their dynamic as a family. But as things head into the final act, the film pulls the rug out from under you, and the effect is – and I’m putting it lightly here – absolutely devastating.
It’s ultimately a film about family, and not in that general sense, but in the way of expressing what makes a family, how blood relations might not provide the kind of love and care that another person could, and the idea of a non-traditional family finding love within themselves, and how that is the most powerful bond a person can have with another. These aren’t new themes by any means, but the film explores them in fascinating and engaging ways, and they’re with characters that are worth caring about.
The performances are uniformly excellent. Each character in the family is distinct, and they play off each other really well. You buy into their bonds, you get invested in the relationships, and there’s clearly a love for all the characters from Kore-eda that extends to the way the actors play them. Franky and Ando are especially great, though they are given the most screen time. There’s so much history given in the smallest of looks and glances, and given what’s revealed as the film goes on, it adds a lot of richness to these characters. It’s also worth noting that the child actors, Kairi and Sasaki are wonderful, and manage to play off the complexity of their situations in a way that feels lived in.
By the time Shoplifters was over, I felt like my heart was pulled out of my chest, thrown onto the ground, and stomped on until it broke into several pieces, and yet, I couldn’t be more thankful for what Hirokazu Kore-eda has made here. It’s a beautiful, kind, and achingly human film that observes a very universal theme about choosing your own family in a way that shows a lot of care and affection, while also not being afraid to hit hard – emotionally speaking – when it needs to. It’s acclaim is most definitely earned, and I’m happy to be another voice to add to the praise. Do give it a chance, but be sure to have some tissues nearby.