You Should take the time to watch Shoplifters by Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda who is often compared to Kurosawa, Bergman, and other great humanists of the cinema.
Shoplifters—inspired by a local news story—is the best movie I have seen in 2018–2019. And yes, I watch a lot of movies!
Shoplifters is a subtle Dickensian tale in a contemporary modern crowded Tokyo.
Shoplifters is about five members of a household: Osamu, Nobuyo, Shota, Aki a-k-a Sayaka, and Grandma who adopt a starving little girl Yuri.
Shoplifters is about the kinship bonds we develop with strangers we chose to love.
Shoplifters is about empathy, generosity, compulsive kindness and incredibly moving moments of joy.
Shoplifters is about trauma, fear of poverty and coming-of-age.
Shoplifters is about three generations of Invisible people in a cold and judgmental capitalist world.
Shoplifters is about people nursing secrets and lies which should never be revealed.
Shoplifters reveals a paradox that despite shoplifting, cheating and coning, Osamu, Nobuyo, Shota, Aki and Grandma create a happier life for little Yuri than her violent law-abiding parents.
Shoplifters is a magical film with overwhelming endings.
Oh, and You Should see Shoplifters because it requires reading subtitles…
– Françoise Dussart
Professor of Anthropology & WGSS
University of Connecticut
Who is Françoise Dussart? Françoise is a professor of anthropology and women’s, gender and sexuality studies at Uconn. Trained in France and Australia, her specialties in social anthropology include Australian Aboriginal society and culture (as well as other Fourth World Peoples), iconography and visual systems, various expressions of gender, ritual and social organization, health and citizenship. She is currently curating the very first major presentation of contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander arts from Australia in Canada, at the Musée de la Civilisation in Quebec City.
