Three sisters live together in Kamakura. When their father - absent for 15 years - dies, they travel to the countryside for his funeral and meet their half-sister. Bonding quickly with the o... Read allThree sisters live together in Kamakura. When their father - absent for 15 years - dies, they travel to the countryside for his funeral and meet their half-sister. Bonding quickly with the orphaned Suzu, they invite her to live with them.Three sisters live together in Kamakura. When their father - absent for 15 years - dies, they travel to the countryside for his funeral and meet their half-sister. Bonding quickly with the orphaned Suzu, they invite her to live with them.
- Awards
- 16 wins & 24 nominations total
- Dr. Yasuyuki Inoue
- (as Ryôhei Suzuki)
- Fûta Ozaki
- (as Ohshiroh Maeda)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Featured reviews
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.
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.
Koreeda was also a good fit for the subject of the story, his last film Like Father, Like Son also handled relations between reunited family members. This time the most defining aspect is the role of the female in Japan, still a very paternalistic country, yet as the film shows they have no difficulty living on their own. Every film is an image of its time and Our Little Sister shows that times have changed, this case for the better.
The cinematography was very beautiful, to the point were I would recommend trying to watch Our Little Sister on the big screen. The long-shots of natural views are breath-taking. Furthermore, the script and the film feel very precise, no doubt the outcome of Hirokazu Koreeda writing the screenplay, directing and editing the film.
Everything in this movie feels so real, and lively. But also filled with emotions. And the theme and general feeling (what you take with you once done) is quite heavy, even if it is something simple we can all understand. I love the kind of stories that put a smile on my face, even if I felt my heart being tugged a bit. You can see the love that was put in it by everyone involved.
Would easily recommend to anyone.. specially to those that sometimes just stop to realize they are alive.
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.
Did you know
- TriviaBefore they shot the movie, four actresses spent a day at the house together to get familiarized with the layout of the house and get comfortable with each other. They cleaned the house, weeded the garden, cooked meals and ate together. They also fixed the shoji screen, which Koreeda liked it so much that he incorporated the scene in the movie.
- GoofsWhen the four sisters are having their lunch with Chika's boyfriend at their house, in the interior shot looking outward, all the noodles on the main plate have been eaten.
In the next scene, an exterior scene looking inward to the house, Sachi reaches down and takes the plate away but Chika reaches up and takes several noodles off the plate with her chopsticks.
- Quotes
Sachi Kôda: I want you to stay forever.
Suzu Asano: I want to stay forever.
- ConnectionsReferenced in Il était une fois...: Une affaire de famille (2021)
- How long is Our Little Sister?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Official sites
- Language
- Also known as
- Kamakura Diary
- Filming locations
- Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan(town where the three sisters live)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $467,555
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $25,118
- Jul 10, 2016
- Gross worldwide
- $15,946,109
- Runtime
- 2h 7m(127 min)
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1