Shoplifters/万引き家族 (Manbiki kazoku, 2018) - Kore-eda gives another poignant family tale

♥♥♥♥

+ Best Japanese Movie of the Year + Best Tokyo Movie of the Year

This happy poster for Hirokazu Kore-eda's Shoplifters seems to show an ideal family, but the film's title tells us that there is more to their story than meets the eye here

In a small house in Tokyo lives a ragtag 'family' of individuals who are not biologically connected but share each others' limited means, as they discover a little neglected and abused girl in the neighborhood, whom they decide to take in.

Shoplifters is the 13th film from Japanese master writer/director Hirokazu Kore-eda (Like Father, Like Son/Soshite chichi ni naru (2013)). It is a film which, like previous films from his hands, probes the fabrics that make a family a family. It also delves into some of the strategies that underclass people employ in order to make ends meet:
Lily Franky (After the Storm/Umi yori mo mada fukaku (2016))  is poignant as the 'father', who teaches his 'son' and new 'daughter' how to shoplift successfully. The young woman does striptease shows. The 'grandmother' (the late Kirin Kiki (Rage/Ikari (2016)) is a natural as the tough old bird) collects an indemnity and receives pity donations. And so on. But the sadness of their low plight is countered by the fact that they cling together and act as something like a real family. But as crises hit them that fabric is tested. SPOILER In the film's moving ending, we are shown how abandonment and neglect are poison to family relations, and how family breaks create wounds that run deep. SPOILER On the more optimistic side, Shoplifters leaves the little girl back with her poorly equipped biological mother but implicitly shows us that the time spent in an actual, loving environment stays with the girl, who is tough and will likely make it.
Kore-eda's humdrum pace is laced with moments of intimacy, humor, confusion and pain, as he brings several complex relationships together in this fine, intelligent, compassionate, humanistic film. 

Related posts:
 
Hirokazu Koreeda: 2018 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2018 in films - according to Film Excess
2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
After the Storm/海よりもまだ深く (Umi yori mo Mada Fukaku) (2016) - Koreeda's striking portrayal of a disappointing man
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV] 
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
Like Father, Like Son/そして父になる (Soshite Chichi ni Naru) (2013) - Koreeda's magnificent reflection on upbringing and family  

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: In excess of 55.1 mil. $
= Uncertain, but most likely a huge hit
[Shoplifters premiered 13 May (Cannes Film Festival, France, in competition) and runs 121 minutes. Kore-eda developed the story during his making of masterpiece Like Father, Like Son (2013). Shooting took place in Japan, including Tokyo, from December 2017 - ?. The film won the main prize, the Palm d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival under jury president Cate Blanchett. Its biggest markets have been its production country Japan with 37.8 mil. $ (68.6 % of the total gross), making it one of the highest-grossing domestic releases there for the year, China with 14 mil. $ (25.4 %) and South Korea with 1.2 mil. $ (2.2 %). Several markets' grosses are not listed on the film's Box Office Mojo sheet yet, and it has yet to open in several markets: 22 Nov. (Portugal), 23 Nov. (UK, Ireland, US), 12 Dec. (France), 13 Dec. (Holland), 21 Dec. (Sweden), 27 Dec. (Germany), 3 Jan. (Brazil), 10 Jan. (Hungary), 18 Jan. (Turkey) and 7 Feb. (Argentina). More countries may be added. If made on a realistic 7 mil. $ budget, which may be set too high, the film would have made back already 7.87 times its cost. It has been chosen as Japan's official Oscar entry for the year. Kore-eda returns with The Truth (2019), his first non-Japanese film, starring Ethan Hawke, Juliette Binoche and Catherine Deneuve. Franky returned in The Gun/Jû (2018). Shoplifters is certified fresh at 98 % with an 8.8/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Shoplifters?

After the Storm/海よりもまだ深く (Umi yori mo Mada Fukaku) (2016) - Koreeda's striking portrayal of a disappointing man

♥♥♥♥♥

+ Best Japanese Movie of the Year

The faces of the four main characters of Hirokazu Koreeda's After the Storm adorn this pleasant poster

Ryota is an under-achiever, a gambler and a disappointment to his mother and ex-wife. During the period up to and during the 24th annual typhoon in Japan, he tries to make up for his flaws, especially because he wants to keep his son in his life.

After the Storm is the 12th theatrical fiction feature from Japanese master writer-director Hirokazu Koreeda (Nobody Knows/Dare mo Shiranai (2004)), who presents another great drama with humanistic insight, once again asserting himself as one of the truly unique and gifted filmmakers around today. The original title is taken from an old Japanese pop song that is heard in the film and which translates to 'even deeper than the sea'; strictly speaking a better title than After the Storm, which only refers to an actual storm that the action takes places around.
The film's unassuming cinematography leaves the space wide open for the actors, and they honor this with some terrific performances: Hiroshi Abe (A Yell from Heaven/Tengoku Kara no Êru (2011)) is right on as Ryota, who is a bum of a man, but one whom Abe's resourceful portrayal makes sympathetic even through his stealing, lying and wasting away of his money. Ryota has loafed through too much of his life with a goal for himself that he hasn't been able to make happen, while he has let the most important things, his nearest relations, fall apart. We come into his life at a time when this becomes crystal clear for himself as well, though he is unable to make up for his flaws and change the way his life has turned out.
All the actors here give honest, terrific performances, but two that especially also deserve singling out are those of Kirin Kiki (Lake of Tears/Umi no Koto (1966)) as Ryota's very direct, endearing mother and young Taiyô Yoshizawa (Kamisama no Wadachi (2017)) as his intelligent son, who may or may not be following in his father's footsteps, more or less inevitably, just as Ryota seems to have followed in his father's.
After the Storm doesn't match the greatness of Koreeda's recent masterpiece Like Father, Like Son/Soshite Chichi ni Naru (2013), and may appeal to a narrower audience, - certainly to Koreeda fans, - simply because it is very talky, deliberately contemplative in its form and may appear slow. It doesn't have much action; much of the plot moves through dialog, and the result is an entirely realistic drama with universally recognizable behavioral patterns and themes such as divorce, unfulfilled ambitions, gambling, parental responsibilities, neglect - all of it seen against Koreeda's stories' usual arena that is Family.
The film wouldn't achieve the level of impact it does if it wasn't for the outstanding dialog as well, which is both character-specific, wise and funny. In fact After the Storm is surprisingly funny; honest and unapologetic in its dealing with Ryota's vices, family strings and Japanese traits. It deals with the past, sometimes nostalgically but also as a burden that needs overcoming daily, and is both poetic and ultimately moving, another Koreeda treasure that shouldn't be missed.

Related posts:
 

Hirokazu Kore-eda: 2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
Like Father, Like Son/そして父になる (Soshite Chichi ni Naru) (2013) - Koreeda's magnificent reflection on upbringing and family 
 

Watch a short trailer for the film here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: In excess of 5.1 mil. $ and counting
= Uncertain
[After the Storm premiered 18 May (Cannes' Un Certain Regard section) and runs 117 minutes. Koreeda began thinking up the film in 2001, visiting his mother who lived alone in a housing complex following the death of her husband, Koreeda's father. Shooting lasted 1½ month from May 2014 on, during the year that Koreeda was also shooting his Our Little Sister/Umimachi Diary (2015). 89k paid admission to the film in its opening weekend in Japan, where it grossed 3.1 mil. $ (60.8 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 815k $ (16 %) and South Korea with 672k $ (13.2 %). In North America, it opened #47 to 27k $ in 6 theaters and peaked at #46 in 35 theaters and grossed 252k $ (4.9 %). The box office sheet is incomplete with several markets missing. The film was nominated for an Asian Film Award. After the Storm is certified fresh at 95 % with a 7.9/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of After the Storm?