Unsere kleine Schwester

All the Hollywood directors producing one comic-book sequel after the other (and all other directors as well) should see this film, they should turn away in shame, and quit directing. Movie is largely seen as a medium to entertain, yet it could be so much more.

Watching this movie, in every scene, it is incomprehensible for a western viewer how it is filmed: There are only daily life scenes, nothing dramatic, yet it is such a heart-warming experience, a simple joy of watching people living their lives.

The story follows 3 very different grown-up sisters who live independently in a big house. The father has left them when they were little, and now they learn that they yet have another little sister. Soon their little dormitory has an additional guest. The main characters are the youngest sister who tries to adapt to her new life, and the oldest sister who is determined to live her life lead by strength and kindness.

Critics have compared Kore-eda with Ozu, because of his calm observation of life. Still, Ozu's films contain great sadness, while Kore-eda's movies ('Like Father,Like Son', 'Kiseki') are full of hope and joy for living. They show simple people trying to find happiness in life. It has a Zen-like quality: one doesn't need big dramatic events to show love and kindness, if you are looking close enough you will find it in the most ordinary things in daily life.

This is one of the best movies I've ever seen.

This movie is 128 minutes long and at the end i was hoping it could go on for two more hours. For me it is the essence of what cinema should be. Great story real characters and real life ! Just a few days before i was watching SW7 and thought it was an OK movie but while watching "our little sister" i was realizing how much better cinema can be and how bad most Hollywood blockbusters really are. I know its like comparing a Michelin star cook to Mc Donald's but when you tasted both you realize one is art and one is fast food. One you eat because you're hungry (bored) and one because it tastes great. This movie is art because it touches you in a special way ... not you ego but your humanity.

Compared to Hirokazu Koreeda previous movie "like father like son" the story is very loose sometime you even think there is none. You also get tricked by the expectations other movies force you to have by repeating the same motives over and over again. I'm not sure if this is intentional or the movie is just so different.

Like most Japanese or Asian movies there is some stuff that could be a little bit to slapstick and melodramatic for western viewers but that's a very small price to pay.

If you don't count anime "our little sister" makes it in my top 5 Asian movies of all time. I highly recommend it.

This is by no means a simple watch, but it's a hugely pleasant one. Our Little Sister is a perfect example of how a slow, calm and natural film can pull you in so much deeper than something big and loud, with fantastic performances, beautiful directing, brilliant dialogue and an emotionally impressive, but never melodramatic story.

The most striking thing about this film is the directing. It's all very understated, but the director is so brilliant at giving you staggeringly beautiful vistas of the countryside landscape of Japan. It never takes over what's happening in the story, but the way that the natural world is presented in this film is so special, and makes it an absolute joy to watch.

The performances are great too. Again, with a very quiet and understated story, the actors all do a fantastic job at providing interesting drama and engaging character development, which makes the slow pacing of this film feel almost invisible, as you're able to be pulled in so effectively by the very human, realistic performances, which was so impressive to see.

And that ability to create a realistic drama continues in the film's dialogue. The performances are all fantastic, but without the brilliantly-written dialogue, that feels so natural and real, this film may not have been as brilliantly engrossing as it is. Luckily, however, every line is so well-crafted, and fits so well with whatever's going on on screen, that you become totally immersed in this film as if you're right there taking part in these conversations.

This is effectively a 'slice of life' drama, where we're not getting an over-the-top, cinematic melodrama, but one that just peers into some people's lives, and makes a compelling story out of it.

That's true for a lot of the film, and I definitely enjoyed following the brilliant plot here, but if there is one complaint that I do have with Our Little Sister, it lies within the way the story is told. Understated films are fantastic, and shouldn't be overlooked, but in this film, I felt as if it was just a little too quiet in its opening stage to get you fully up to speed with what's going on.

Don't get me wrong, the calm nature of the film is beautiful for the most part, but for the first twenty minutes or so, I did feel a little lost with the characters' various backgrounds and relationships due to little early exposition, which made for an occasionally frustrating watch at the beginning.

Overall, however, Our Little Sister is a wonderful film, and it uses understated drama in a brilliantly realistic and immersive way, helped further by great performances and fantastic directing.

This movie has all the elements to be a perfect Japanese movie usable for a Wstern audience. We have a story about tree sisters living alone in a traditional house facing everyday problems like many Ghibli productions, trains in the mountains, funerals as in the "Departures", little restaurant and cherry blossoms. However here we have an opposite narration compared to the movies of Ozu that made us fall in love with that absolutely Japanese simplicity as well unexpressed depth of emotions inside them. In other words, the beginning of those black and white masterpieces was one of familiar tranquility. A tranquility then threatened and finally restored. Let's think to "Tokyo Monogatari" in which at the end the old mother went back to the village where the younger daughter waits for her. Or the old father giving her daughter as spouse to another house at the end of "Sanma no aji". So there the key was finding the harmony. Like the regular sound of wood made by a bamboo fountain in a Japanese garden. Here in "Our little sister" we start from a situation of familiar disorder and in the end nothing changes so much. The hardships of the three sisters remain the same. Sachi, the older one, still leads all the house and the garden by herself. Yoshino, the lovable middle one, still looks for a new boyfriend whit out stopping the habit of drinking alone. Chika, the little one, still date with his naif boyfriend. But in the middle of all this something happened. They accepted in their lives the young sister Suzu, born after their father divorced. This young girl brought to their life a moment of happiness as well hope to going on to what they were doing. Suzu didn't change their life. Is not what can be called "a familiar earthquake". She should be compared nothing more to a blow of spring wind refreshing the house of the three sisters. This is another great difference from past production. We don't have strongly deep feelings. The sisters lives the joy of everyday. Somebody criticize Koreeda for this aspect accusing him of making a movie of good atmosphere and not of emotions. However family has changed. Japan has changed. The three sisters here stands for the contemporary Japan with low birth rate and feared by the earthquake of 2011. A Japan concerned more to what is going on today then to what can happen tomorrow. So we find ourself on the other side to the society growing fast, sometimes too much, in the Ozu's productions where smoking chimneys made their comparison a lot of times. The end show us this idea more clear. The four girls looks over the sea on a shore while speaking about their future without having great expectations. We find no more girls waiting for their boyfriends while practicing on surf as in Kitano's "A scene at the sea". A masterpiece filmed in the highest economic welfare of Japan of the late 80es. In Koreeda's movie we find contemporary girls simply hoping their everyday life can be as always was until then. With hardships but also joy. Without concerning too much about past,that is to say family and father, and future,or marriage and work. Paradoxically a contemporary return to the simplicity of "mono no aware". The medieval Japanese aesthetic principle of enjoy what is short-lived. As the cherry blossoms. As the windy teenage pureness of Sachi. The little sister that brings happiness.

"Our Little Sister" centers around four sisters, their lives and their relationships. It may look like a small, complacent, too slow and contemplative movie, but Koreeda, with the help of amazing acting all around, elevates the proceedings and delivers a really good movie.

Sachi, Yoshino and Chika are three sisters that have lived together for some years. Their father left, marrying again, and their mother run away, leaving them behind. The death of the father brings all of them to his funeral, where they meet their half-sister Suzu. Sachi, the oldest, offers Suzu go living with them, and Suzu accepts, the four starting to live together.

From that moment on the movie develops slowly, but securely, with great character development, a couple of very touching moments, and a focus on human relationships and the reasons behind our behavior. That Koreeda has restrained Haruka Ayase, charming Masami Nagasawa, happy-go-lucky Kaho and innocent but smart looking Suzu Hirose as the four sisters helps, as they embody their characters and bring them to life. The plot helps, with little vignettes that help develop the story and entice the viewer's attention.

The movie is a little bit slow, but you won't care, because what you will care about is these four sisters, their world, their problems and the relationship they have between themselves and with all that surrounds them. Great.