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Shoplifters
Hirokazu Koreeda's modern masterpiece is a dark yet touching account of an unorthodox family that relies on shoplifting to make ends meet.
Director: Hirokazu Koreeda
Overview
Japanese auteur Hirokazu Koreeda won the Palme d’Or at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival for this touching exploration of what it means to be a family. Living in poverty in Tokyo, Osamu and his son are shoplifting groceries when they discover a homeless girl, Yuri. Despite their own struggle, they take her in. But an incident will expose secrets that upend their tenuous, below-the-radar existence.
With humour and humanity, Koreeda (I Wish, After the Storm) presents an unorthodox yet thoroughly modern family unit which works against the odds; perfectly placed to survive amid a harsh world in which everything - including people - has become commodified. The director’s last collaboration with his regular actress, the late Kirin Kiki, sums up his most frequent themes: nature versus nurture, crime and urban alienation, and the question of what it means to be part of a family. Shoplifters is a modern masterpiece to rank alongside other greats in modern Japanese cinema.
strong sex references
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