by Asya Mukhamedrakhimova
MKH digital plubication © 2025
by Asya Mkh
Category Film & TV
Published December 6, 2024
Reviewing ‘Shoplifters’ Recommended by My Director Friends

Kajikazawa in Kai Province, by Kōshū Kajikazawa

I googled until I couldn’t google anymore, but after I was done, I still couldn’t find a review I truly connected with emotionally. So I might as well just write one myself. Honestly, I don’t have much experience with movie reviews, so let’s call this a genuine account of my impressions rather than a full-on review. Even though I’ll focus more on my takeaway than the movie’s plot, there will still be many spoilers.

When looking for a movie to watch on a chill Friday night, instead of going for the usual rom-com/ 90s hit genre, we opted for a Japanese drama/thriller, Shoplifters, directed by the brilliant Kore-eda Hirokazu. Word of advice: sometimes avoiding the phrase ‘nothing too heavy’ when picking a movie can lead to beautiful discoveries. Not always, though. So with snacks on the table, the projector carefully placed on the couch in a precarious position, where even a slight move could disrupt the whole setup and pillows placed on the floor, we collectively pressed play.

I admit that I am taking a risk here since this will limit my audience to solely those who have not only watched the movie (released six years ago, by the way) but also connected with it as much as I did. Oh well, we move.

I had not heard of this film until a friend suggested we watch it. The recommendation initially came from a friend who’s a director himself, so I deemed the source credible enough to trust. Just by seeing the trailer, I could tell I’d experience a range of intense emotions. However, upon analysing my feelings, I don’t think I felt a sudden change of tone, which, in a way, was perfect. The movie’s pacing was precise and steady. It gave me all the necessary experiences without creating shifting the tone and causing any single moment to overshadow the others. That being said, I did stress out quite a bit. I was presented with a family that you can’t help but root for even as you slowly discover each character’s flaws and imperfections. The deliberate withholding of vital information revealed only by the movie’s end might have kept me on the hook. Still, it was the family dynamic and the little moments in which we could study its particularities that made me genuinely immersed in the whole experience.

Shoplifters, source: Frame Set

I must admit, though, that without researching midway through the film, I would not have understood the true relationship between the characters. Understanding that helped me focus more on the characters’ relationships and less on the question of, ‘How the fuck are they all related to each other?’ I am in no way suggesting that you spoil an experience of a movie by reading about it mid-watch, but as someone with no patience and a need to know everything, it helped me greatly.

So now to the more specific parts. One of the key themes throughout the film is the way individuals—both children and adults—seek escape from abuse in a small, isolated house (and some of them also shoplift). To me, shoplifting felt more like a plot tool to use as a highlighter pen over the subtext of class and social commentary. However, that is just my opinion. In one of the scenes, a character is wearing a top with the phrase, ‘freedom is not voluntary,’ written on it, which I find very relevant to the situation all (or at least most) family members find themselves in. For most characters, escaping their past situations and the ‘freedom’ they found was not a choice. The parental figures of the film, Osamu and Nobuyo, were forced into it by the consequences of their past crimes (the past crimes were a choice, but the consequences were not).

Shoplifters, source: Frame Set

Both kids, Shota and Yuri/Lin, did not have much choice in the matter either. They were rescued or maybe kidnapped (depending on how you see it) and brought into the home. Similarly, Hatsue’s husband leaving her was not a choice she made. I am not sure what sort of freedom it gave her (that’s where this theory falls apart), but she did find her family after all. A family that fulfilled her wish of not dying alone. The only character, I think, who had a real choice was Aki, whom I wasn’t allowed to understand as well as the others. Perhaps that was the intention. Or maybe I am missing something since I am sure many interactions between characters got lost in translation. Watching a movie in a foreign language always has that risk. I did, however, feel the juxtaposition of the two households she had to choose between. The scenes of the family together, having dinner, talking, discussing their day, and being pretty wholesome are set in opposition to Hatsue visiting Aki’s actual home, where cold and lonely energy is palpable throughout the scene.

The movie clearly highlights that family is someone you choose. You may find more joy with people who aren’t related to you by blood and not knowing someone’s full story doesn’t necessarily prevent you from genuinely connecting with them. On the contrary, once we are stripped of the burdens of our background, what else can we focus on but present feelings towards each other?

Shoplifters, source: Frame Set

Finally, the last thing I wanted to talk about is the movie’s morality. Of course, each adult character’s actions, mostly Nobuyo and Osamu, do not scream ‘always doing the right thing.’ But then again, in a movie like this, the lines the characters cross become increasingly blurred. In the first part of the movie, shoplifting seems like a bonding activity between ‘the father’ and ‘the son.’ Although heavily discussed and forever present, the movie’s subject is not mentioned in every conversation. Even the phrase “what we steal from the store doesn’t belong to anyone yet” brings a layer of twisted logic and a sense that the family follows its own ‘code of shoplifting.’ However, after Hatsue’s death, things begin to unravel. Of course, every movie needs a breaking point. However, unlike many Western movies where this point is loud and obvious (and almost always supported by intense soundtracks), here it was subtle, and although necessary, it was not flashed in front of our faces. The scene of Nobuyo and Osamu going through the house and joyfully counting Hatsue’s money made it abundantly clear that their sense of morality was slipping, and stealing a bag that ‘belongs to someone’ from a car destroyed any idea of a shoplifter code previously followed. What was more interesting, though, was that these actions were only revealed as the film was nearing its culmination.

This brings me to the conclusion that since the death of a family member, although traumatic, could not have caused such a massive shift in morality, these actions were always possible. They just needed a catalyst. However, how the actions were revealed to the viewer might have been even more interesting than the actions themselves. Once again, we were given new information only when the plot required it. Instead of forcing us to put bits and pieces of the film together to create an accurate idea of the characters in our heads, it gave us exactly what we needed to draw our conclusion scene by scene.

I will finish this long (oh so very long) ‘review’ by saying that the cinematography and careful sequencing made the movie visually captivating, and the last scene of Shota on the bus was just the right amount of bittersweet. Now I am done. Damn, this didn’t exactly meet the traditional criteria for a review. But I hope it resonated with those who watched the movie.

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