After a couple of films where he seemed to be threading water, Hirokazu Koreeda has come back with a genuinely great film. In many ways this is familiar territory for him - a closely observed story of an unlikely family on the fringe of society - a poor working class family who supplement their meagre wages through regular shoplifting. The father justifies it as the goods in the shop 'don't belong to anyone yet, so nobody is hurt'. This rough around the edges but open hearted family expands when they by accident end up taking in an abused little girl.
What starts out as a slice of life film gets more profound as we realised not all is as it seems - and we start to question what it even means to be 'family'. Koreeda never force-feeds his audience with what he thinks, he lets us observe and come to our own conclusions.
This really is one of his best - the only negative in the film is that the plot becomes a little contrived and didactic towards the end, and it requires a little suspension of belief. But its all carried off very well by a uniformly outstanding cast, with the usual Kore-eda mix of experience actors and newcomers.
What starts out as a slice of life film gets more profound as we realised not all is as it seems - and we start to question what it even means to be 'family'. Koreeda never force-feeds his audience with what he thinks, he lets us observe and come to our own conclusions.
This really is one of his best - the only negative in the film is that the plot becomes a little contrived and didactic towards the end, and it requires a little suspension of belief. But its all carried off very well by a uniformly outstanding cast, with the usual Kore-eda mix of experience actors and newcomers.