Our Little Sister

Our Little Sister: A Masterpiece(My review first appeared in Huffington Press when the film was released)Our Little Sister is a film of surpassing beauty and sensitivity, a fully realized insight into family, a simple story of three sisters living together who are joined by their half sister. It unfolds patiently, with elegance and understanding.The three Koda sisters — Sachi, Yoshino and Chika — live together in Kamakura by the sea. Years earlier they were abandoned to live in their grandmother’s house. First their father left their mother for another woman. Then their mother ran off with another man. 30-year-old Sachi (Haruka Ayase), a nurse at a nearby hospital, kept the family together, raising the younger sisters.When the sisters hear of their father’s death, they decide to put aside old feelings of abandonment to travel to his funeral. At the memorial service, they encounter Suzu Asano (Suzu Hirose), their father’s child with his third wife. Their meeting is at first uncomfortable. Feelings about the father are unresolved. But the open kindness of young Suzu disarms skepticism.Sachi spontaneously invites Suzu to come live with them. Suzu gratefully accepts. She fits in quickly and well. Clearly, she is mature beyond her 13 years, having nursed her declining father. Suzu is helpful and upbeat. She adapts to school and community, as well. Skillful in soccer and proficient in studies, she wins friends, including one particularly interested boy. She enjoys hanging out with classmates at the local diner.There are bumps in the road. But they are slight. The fact that Suzu looks like her mother, the woman who lured their father away, gives the sisters pause. As their grandmother warns, “She’s the daughter of the woman who destroyed your family.”Through her quiet, supportive presence, Suzu provides a foil for the other sisters’ character development. Chika (Kaho) and her boyfriend who has lost six toes on Mt. Everest are always upbeat. Sachi’s secret affair with a married doctor at her hospital is more problematic. Yoshino’s (Masami Nagasawa) serial failed romances and flightiness give even less promise for her future.But the four sisters grow together. Normal family occasions, maintenance, tasks and issues rise and are resolved or dispatched. Suzu is woven into the fabric of their daily lives, complementing her siblings, even filling in spaces in their knowledge and memories. She shares reminiscences of their father that help the other sisters better understand their father and themselves. By film’s end, they are bound by family and friendship, commonalities and differences. They are a family of four women learning from their experience to build a better life together.The story is presented through the sparse, but knowing dialogue of writer Akimi Yoshida and director Kore-eda Hirokazu adapted from Yoshida’s graphic novel Umimachi Diary. It is exquisitely framed by Kore-eda’s breathtaking tracking shots of the sisters at the railway station, at their house window and at film’s conclusion against the Kamakura seashore.Our Little Sister won nine Japanese Academy Awards, including Best Actor, Best Director and Best Film.Although it may be heresy, one cannot view “Our Little Sister” and other work by Kore-eda (Still Walking, Like Father, Like Son, After Life) without thinking of the towering postwar achievements of Tokyo Story Director Yasujiro Ozu (Late Spring, Early Summer, An Autumn Afternoon). There is no higher compliment.

Great movie! Good seller.

Excellent heart warming family story.

Serene charming story of four sisters and their absent parents

As members of a film discussion group, we were assigned this film. As with many Japanese movies, it moves slowly and focuses on the quiet details of life, but all the members of our group felt it was a special look into human interaction.

(NO SPOILERS REVIEW)This is exactly the kind of movie I was looking for at the moment. This isn't some grand story or complex plot with a twist. This is a film about the simple joys found in day to day life and shared experiences with loved ones. The drama contained are of heavy subjects, but are not at the forefront of the story nor do they dominate the film's ambience and feel... the film still maintains it's overall feeling of warmth and tranquility.As another reviewer pointed out, Western audiences unfamiliar with Japanese culture and films will be puzzled about this film and wonder what is the whole point of it all by the end. As my headline said, this film is not so much about the where the plot directly takes you at the film's conclusion. The ending, the destination, is predictable... you'll know where it takes you and that doesn't matter. It's about the experiences along the way; the real meaning of it all is implied by film's conclusion.I was left with a light, warm, and happy feeling at the end. And I hope this movie will leave you feeling the same way.

The story is set in a small household shared by three sisters with distinctly different personalities. 29-year-old Sachi Kouda (Haruka Ayase) is restrained and mature; 22-year-old Yoshino Kouda (Masami Nagasawa) is outgoing but has a tendency to fall for unsuitable boys; and 19-year-old Chika Kouda (Kaho) is quirky and childlike. While attending the funeral of their estranged father, they met 14-year-old Suzu Asano (Suzu Hirose), the daughter of their father by another woman. In an uncharacteristically impulsive move, Sachi, the oldest sister, invited Suzu to come and live with them. Through Suzu, the three sisters came to discover a part of their father they never knew. As the four sisters forged new bonds, they also struggled with their own feelings for their absent mother and their father's infidelity.This classic Japanese family drama is slow paced. The camera lingers on breathtaking countrysides and hillsides, on charming, sisterly chatters and banters, and on isolated train stations that marked the turning points in the sisters' relationships. When the outburst and meltdown did come, they were well-timed and touching. If you like Hollywood films with larger-than-life personalities and wild emotions, this may not be your kind of movie. But if you like films that let you get to know the characters and experience their quiet dignity, the four sisters here will stay with your for a long time.

This story gave me a "Feel-Good" ending, based on the complete acceptance of their "Little Sister", who had the same father, but a different mom. It was not her fault, so her older three sisters accepted her completely into their Family, and made her feel she was just as good as everyone else. You could see her gratefulness for this in her eyes, and feel it in your heart too, and it turned out to be a true, "And They Lived Happily Ever After" kind of story. Highly Recommended.