Our Little Sister

Dir: Hirokazu Koreeda

2015

*****

Hirokazu Koreeda goes from strength to strength, his 2015 melodrama Our Little Sister being one of his best films to date. Based on the MANGA series Umimachi Diary by Akimi Yoshida (author of the brilliant Banana Fish comics), the film follows three sisters who discover they have a step-sister after receiving the news that their father has died. Essentially alone, they adopt their younger sister and ask her to live with them in the big old house their father abandoned them in. Over time, the sisters learn more about each other and themselves from the various different memories they each have of their childhoods and relationships with each other. The script is simple, the performances subtle and the overall tone calming, bordering on melancholy. Koreeda concentrates on the details, the little aspects of life, in order to tell a bigger story. Our Little Sister is a good example of quintessential Japanese cinema. Food plays a big part of the story, as do high-school relationships, seasons and traditions, all the sort of things you'd expect and want from a Japanese film. In my humble opinion, Hirokazu Koreeda is the first real successor to Yasujirō Ozu. The director's films share a certain temperament to that of the late great legend of cinema, both have an effortless hold on the audience like a whispered voice that demands silence to be heard. I can't think of any other director, apart from Ozu and Koreeda that can make a viewer feel uplifted from the sadness that can come from nostalgia, it really is something unique and rather special. Like Ozu, Koreeda understands the importance of the little things, the overlooked details of life. Watching Our Little Sister is like covering yourself in a blanket during winter or a cool breeze during summer, simple ingredients cooked to perfection.