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Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Palme d’Or-winning “Shoplifters” begins with a man and a boy in a store who seem to know each other. They have a certain non-verbal communication system, and it appears that they are moving through the store as a way to get closer to each other, even though they are engaging in a criminal act. The act of shoplifting is as ritualistic as non-verbal communication, and we can tell the duo is doing it with the intent to survive by stealing food instead of dainty items that would be deemed unworthy of a sip of water.
As the man and boy are going home that night, just after saying it is too cold to go get some missing shampoo, they spot a girl on a balcony. It appears they have spotted her before. The man hands the girl a croquette despite him clearly not requiring it, and she follows him home. The man’s name is revealed to be Osamu (Lily Franky), while the boy’s name is Shota (Jyo Kairi). There are other mouths needing to be fed as well. We encounter the mother, Nobuyo (Ando Sakura), another woman, Aki (Matsuoka Mayu), and a grandmother (Kiki Kilin). And now there’s also a new mouth which is a girl called Juri. That night when Osamu and Nobuyo try to return the girl, they are witnesses to a violent scuffle between parents who most likely do not know that their daughter is missing. Osamu does not let Juri go, which means that they are not returning her.
Nobuyo and Osamu justify their actions by claiming that is not possible to kidnap a person when there’s no ransom demand. This is akin to what Osamu tells his son Shota about stealing, that if it’s not someone’s property, it’s perfectly fine to take it, especially if it is kept in a shop. It is alright as long as the store does not go into liquidation. There is a lot of gray area in “Shoplifters.” What does the word family even mean? Does being capable of giving birth make one a mother? In “Like Father, Like Son,” and “Nobody Knows,” Kore-eda has tackled the question of family before, however this one is the most sophisticated, multi-layered probing that he does on the subject. While Nobuyo and Osamu have Juri’s biological parents, they take care of her more than her “family” ever could.
For the most part of “Shoplifters”, Kore-eda writes in a beautiful register that captures detail with a clear maintained tone. What is great about these characters is we see them all at their specific occupations. Until Osamu has an accident, he works as a manual laborer. Nobuyo works laundry shifts and she also has a habit of picking up trinkets that have been left in clothes.
Aki is referred to as a ‘companion’ and in her line of work, that means someone who does sex shows, but she alas hopes to connect with one of her clients on a deeper level. In the Shibatas, there are traces of greater secrets and a more complex past than one might assume, alongside plenty of scenes depicting banal domesticity.
Then, Kore-eda pulls the rug from under the Shibatas, who is seen set in their ways, and allude to a lot more that is left unsaid in this makeshift family. The last thirty minutes of “Shoplifters” should be cataloged as some of the most poignant, effective filmmaking of the year, and that is because of Kore-eda’s tenderness in the way he crafted every character during the previous 90 minutes. With skillful humanist storytelling, Kore-eda has created characters that feel as real as any of the three dimensional constructs created this year. Lily Franky is fantastic in Kore-eda’s “Hiroshima, Mon Amour”, but it was Ando Sakura who absolutely stole the film. The way she depicts the character’s deep reservoir of conflicting emotions in the last few scenes is truly astonishing. One of the year’s strongest performances, and she certainly stands out in an incredibly pure part ensemble.
In a multitude of ways, the movie “Shoplifters” expands on Kore-eda’s pre-existing themes central to family, inequality, and the hidden citizens of the bustling Tokyo. Unlike his previous works, this time, Kore-eda’s characters and their issues go beyond just speaking about problems. They are complex people who seem to have lived their lives far into the future after the movie ends. The last few minutes of the film “Shoplifters” continue to bother me, two kids, one looking back and the other gazing forward at a new life both are changed forever.
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