Shoplifters (2018)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Shoplifters (2018) – H. Kore-eda

By the end of the film, even the title takes on new significance -- it's more about humans than things -- just as the word family seems to lose its formal definition and take on new (perhaps better) meanings.  Such is director Hirokazu Kore-eda's mastery that we don't object to these redefinitions because they have been supported gradually and subtly throughout the story.  More specifically, we are asked to contemplate whether this rascally collection of people: “father” (Lily Franky), “mother” (Sakura Andô), “auntie” (Mayu Matsuoka), “brother” (Jyo Kairi), “sister” (Miyu Sasaki), and “grandmother” (Kirin Kiki) really represent a family through their actions rather than their formal relationships (in comparison to other families briefly portrayed in the film).  The first two acts of the film show us how they live, with loving (but not sentimental) attention to detail and some comedy – we get to know them and how they struggle with poverty (through shoplifting and demeaning jobs). The acting by all members of the cast is tremendous. At the same time, Kore-eda critiques the Japanese society that allows this situation to happen to these people.  In the third act, however, the rug is pulled out from under the viewer and we are asked whether we _still_ accept this “family” when new information is provided. If we do, we must accept that everyone is imperfect and that certain actions are more important for judging character than other actions.  In the end, then, it is another humanist message from this director who is building up an oeuvre in the same “family drama” genre that revered master Yasujiro Ozu worked in (albeit without the strict formalist camera set-ups).  Perhaps, just as Ozu made his themes explicit and continually returned to and reworked them, the same is true of Kore-eda (see Nobody Knows, 2004; Still Walking, 2008; I Wish, 2012; Like Father, Like Son, 2013; Our Little Sister, 2015; After the Storm, 2016).  In fact, we should soon decide that he is one of the great masters himself; Shoplifters is a strong argument in favour and deservedly won the Palme D’or at Cannes this year.