Shoplifters

Kore-eda Hirokazu (Still Walking) established himself as a festival favourite around the world with films like After Life, Nobody Knows and Still Walking. and won the Palme d’Or with Shoplifters in 2018. A smash hit in his native Japan, it is a film about love and crime. When a little girl (Sasaki Miyu) is found alone in the cold by Osamu (Lily Franky) and his young companion Shota (Jyo Kairi), Osamu brings her home for a hot meal; when signs point to her being an abuse victim, he decides she should stay. And so she joins the Shibata family, which also includes wife Nobuyo (Ando Sakura), teenager Aki (Matsuoka Mayu) and “grandma” Hatsue (Kiki Kilin). To all appearances, they’re a caring and contented bunch, but they’re also very poor, and they have ways of getting by that “respectable” society frowns on — most notably, theft. Can their happiness last?

Kore-eda is a filmmaker of exquisite sensitivity, attuned to the small moments of significance that so many movies seem designed to make us forget about. One by one, he adds those moments, building ever so patiently to revelation and heartbreak. With its gestures of love, subtle visual grace, superb acting and rich human portraiture this is a very generous film — powerfully sad, but with a lot of beauty to take with you as you leave the theatre.

This wise and insightful film is delicate, poignant and unexpectedly powerful.

Kenneth Turan, LA Times

A thrilling, beautiful tale… This is a film that steals in and snatches your heart.

Robbie Collin, Daily Telegraph

You watch master Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda’s latest, about an impoverished family living in Tokyo, enchanted by its quiet moments. But just as it lulls you, it also devastates. Like all of Kore-eda’s movies, the family briefly becomes your own.

Moira Macdonald, Seattle Times