Film Review: Shoplifters Makes You Rethink How You Look At The Poor
SYNOPSIS: After one of their shoplifting sessions, Osamu and his son come across a little girl in the freezing cold. At first reluctant to shelter the girl, Osamu’s wife agrees to take care of her after learning of the hardships she faces.Although the family is poor, barely making enough money to survive through petty crime, they seem to live happily together until an unforeseen incident reveals hidden secrets, testing the bonds that unite them…
If two men stole, would you think them a thief? Would you punish them? What if I told you, one man was homeless and the other was a politician? What if I told you one was stealing for his family and the other was stealing for himself? Who would you believe had said motives? Watching Director and Writer Kore-Eda’s Hirokazu Shoplifters, I was so bittersweetly happy to see a film that humanizes the desolate.
Too often, we put high moral expectations on the poor, while treating them with the lowest of standards. Yet, Kore-Eda’s Shoplifters puts a mirror to society by challenging viewers to question powers that allows such disenfranchisements. Following the Shibata family of mother Osamu (Lily Franky), father Nobuyo (Sakura Andô), sister Yuri (Miyu Sasaki), brother Shota (Kairi Jyo) grandma Hatsue (Kirin Kiki), and older sister Aki (Mayu Matsuoka), viewers are deeply moved by a set of people united in their unwillingness to crumble as they face deep financial and spiritual crisis. For those of you who don’t know, and those that do, poverty can make you crazy. In a world where thy rich are getting richer off the poor getting poorer, madness is rising.
The tragic beauty of Shoplifters is that it is a testament to abandonment. From Yuri to the “adults” of the family, the film confronts what it means to be marginalized. No one dreams of being a thief or a stripper, and circumstance can push you to respond to societal immorality with personal indignity. I truly believe we are all in this world together, and one of the reasons humanity has yet to see it “glory day” is because there are those whom believe they can succeed without another. Even though this “makeshift family” is the definition of destitute, the amount of love that pours out of the screen makes you want them to rob everyone or get lotto rich (lol!). Yet, as you watch scenes of them laughing, stealing and scheming for each other, and going on little adventures together, you realize strength comes from the refusal to be unhappy.
Shoplifters is a film derived on human struggle, and how money truly is the root of all evil; turning corrupt men into billionaires and better men into criminals. Yet, it shows that, sometimes, there comes a point in your life when things gets so dark you either stop crying or, at least, you work harder to laugh. There are those in this world like, Osamu, Nobuyo, Hatsue, Aki, Shota, and Yuri who will live a life that has significantly more devastating problems than resolutions, and they did nothing to deserve it. Hence, I cried during Shoplifters because Kore-Eda’s film approaches a truth we do not like to hear as human beings; sometimes, your tragedy is not your fault and does not hold some grandiose lesson.
Being based in Tokyo, you will, definitely, look at Shoplifters and think, “You struggle with bills, too!” Osamu and Nobuyo are working individuals, which is why so many will flock to the relevant tragedy of their characters and how even their “good deeds” get punished. These are not people that are “horrible” and aimed to dupe social echelons. They are working class citizens that are so systemically overworked and underpaid that they have seen the immorality of a world that formalizes injustice into policies. After all, if the world denies you your basic necessities, like food and hygienic products, then truly the world is wrong. Yet, watching these wonderful actors, you realize you can still be right by assuring that, no matter how hard it is, you find a way to laugh and love. Shoplifter Comes Out In Theaters November 23, and I HOPE it gets nominated for Best Foreign Film by The Oscars.
