Shoplifters

Japan 2018 

Dir: Hirokazu Kore-eda

116 mins, subtitled

Cast: Lily Franky, Sakura Ando, Kirin Kiki

Rating: M

Japanese auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda has spent over a decade examining the dynamics of family life, and he deservedly won the Palme d'or at Cannes for this intricately scripted and impeccably played saga, which centres on an even more unconventional unit than the one depicted in the masterly Nobody Knows. As usual, the influence of Yasujiro Ozu and Mikio Naruse can be felt in Kore-eda's flintily compassionate humanism. But, with its focus on female sacrifice and suffering, this also recalls the heartbreaking 1930s melodramas of Kenji Mizoguchi, in which women on the margins did whatever it took to provide for their loved ones.

... Thanks to the brilliance of the cast (with Franky and Ando excelling in a poignant love-making sequence), these careless words, small gestures and tell-tale expressions acquire enormous emotional power, as Ryuto Kondo's camera insinuates itself into every nook and cranny of Keiko Mitsumatsu's cosily cluttered interiors. Yet there's never a hint of contrivance or cheap sentiment, as Kore-eda challenges societal convention and questions the priorities of those who wield power while being detached from reality.

The spirits of the old masters pervade this disquieting but deeply moving drama. But Kore-eda stands alone as the chronicler of family life in a country facing an identity crisis.

David Parkinson, Empire Magazine

Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Shoplifters is set in contemporary Japan but has a storyline which could have been filched from Charles Dickens. The film (which won Cannes’ biggest prize the Palme d’Or earlier this summer) combines tear-jerking sentimentality with hard-hitting social comment. It has doe-eyed kids stealing from shops and supermarkets. Its main male character has a hint of Fagin about him.

Kore-eda’s affection for his protagonists is obvious. If they game the system and engage in petty crime, they do so to survive. They’re a close-knit family who depend on one another, even if the ties between aren’t what they seem. Kore-eda excels in working with kids. He again elicits extraordinarily moving and layered performances from his child actors here.

.... Shoplifters wasn’t an obvious winner of the Cannes Palme d’Or. It’s a modest, sometimes maudlin family drama about chancers on the margins. What makes it such an enrapturing experience is the tenderness, humour and detail Kore-eda brings to his material. He doesn’t resort to polemical tub-thumping about the social system which has allowed Osamu and the others to fall so far through the cracks. Nor is he judgmental about their scams. Instead, he highlights their humanity and their attempts to help each other, even when their own lives are threatening to unravel.

Geoffrey Mcnab, The Independent