SHOPLIFTERS: FILM REVIEW
From the get go, Hirokazu Koreeda’s Shoplifters cuts straight to the point, as the film opens with a scene of a small boy and an older man stealing at the store. While the boy quietly slips packs of ramen into his blue book bag, the man pretends to be observing packaged goods on the shelf. As soon as their task is complete, the two leave the store and immediately buy croquettes from a nearby vendor. It feels like an adventure! The opening scene’s comical taste immediately gives Shoplifters a nonjudgemental feel.
We learn shortly after that the boy is named Shota (Jō Kairi) and the man, Osamu (Lily Franky), who plays the role as Shota’s “father.” Shoplifters follows the Shibata family, who are bonded more so by spirit, than by blood. The Japenese family is composed of three generations: a husband and wife named Nobuyo (Ando Sakura), a grandma, a daughter (Matsuoka Mayu), and a son. They all live in one small house, that of grandmother Hatsue (Kiki Kirin), who has an apartment pension. No one in the family is absent from the hustle, whether it’s working at a peep show, doing odd jobs, or shoplifting. Even though there’s barely a spare corner in their house for another person, the Shibata family takes in an extra member: Yuri (Miyu Saski), a little girl they find on the street who seems to have been abandoned and abused.
The class divides in Japan are incredibly wide, and Shoplifters attempts to tell the story of those at the outskirts. By honing in on the Shibata family, we see a group of individuals who are connected to each other not only by their mutual need to get by, but also by their familial values. The way that Shibata family takes in Yuri shows these values they hold so highly, as they attempt to make Yuri one of their own and even teaching her how to shop-lift, with cues such as making hand gestures and staying quiet.
The pinnacle plot points of Shoplifters revolve around the protection and repercussions of taking in Yuri, many of which are somewhat predictable. While the family continues to exist in their little bubble, Yuri shows up on the news channel almost every night as a missing girl. It’s inevitable that the Shibata family’s secret slowly slips out amongst whispers in the neighborhood. While many try to shame the family for essentially kidnapping the girl, the family sticks together. Even as their world starts to crumble, it’s never a question of giving her up, but rather, who will take the fall.
However, the cinematography in Shoplifters excels at balancing the film’s drama, by providing comical relief and an intimate composition of the Shibata family and their daily hustle. The camera highlights the Shibata family’s tight living space by giving us narrow crops of the family sitting at the dinner table, while panning across the colorful knickknacks that color the apartment. Even when we get a glimpse of Hatsue’s daughter, Aki, doing a peep show, we are let into her intimate space, which is colored with cotton candy pink hues as she slowly reveals her body for a man’s pleasure. Then, immediately we cut to Hatsue having a day at the Pachinko slot machines. It’s clear that she’s a regular.
The ending of Shoplifters is still one of the most moving scenes I’ve ever encountered in cinema. When my little sister and I watched the film two years ago, she cried endless tears on our bed -- the ones that suddenly burst during the scene and continue even as the end credits start rolling. Although I don’t want to reveal too much about the scene, it involves a bus pulling two endearing characters away, giving the film a form of closure, but not the one we seek.
Shoplifters hones in on the human connection we all crave and need; the family we all seek to build and be a part of. Even in such a claustrophobic and tiny space, the Shibata family is composed of some of the most intimate relationships that weave between survival and love. While the line of morality for many lies in stealing, for the Shibata family, other values are much more important. “Well as long as the store doesn’t go bankrupt it’s okay,” Nobuyo teaches Shota. While the Shibata family successfully scrapes by for a long time, the film never fails to let us forget there’s always a price to pay. Tragically colored with these realities, Shoplifters is both a humorous escape and a devastating tale of a Japanese family’s attempt to stick together, no matter how many obstacles they face in a society that aims to rip them apart.