Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!
I've been wanting to see that forever. Roger Ebert wrote a review for it that made it sound awesome and its been on my To Watch list for like 25 years now.
(checks the internets)
FFS, it still hasn't ever gotten a physical American release. The hell?
Of course, that's one of the happy occurrences of our more connected world as it is, I didn't have to wait multiple years or even decades to see Hirokazu Kore-eda's latest slice of gentle and humane family drama Shoplifters. For some reason this film of his particular is garnering more notice than his other usually great output. I saw this just an hour ago in a well attended theater on what is now its third week of release. Its got a Golden Globe nomination and shortlisted for an Oscar nom, its also made pretty good dinero for what kind of film it is. I mention this because to me it wasn't a film I liked anymore than his other recent family dramas. Its good, even really good, but isn't at all revelatory.
And its such a minor complaint for what is a damn good film, but if you've seen Still Walking, Nobody Knows, After the Storm, Our Little Sister, well shit, you've seen how this dude conjures a fragile alchemy to make consistently great, near plotless domestic dramas about families relying on each other through thick or thin (very thin in this case of an itinerant clan of minor-league grifters). I'm glad the dude is getting some long overdue props, and its an easy recommendation for anybody who wants to see a thoughtful, well performed film that is a richly emotional experience that never once veers into unearned sentiment. By now, Koreeda is making this look easy, even though I know that it can't be.