Our Little Sister
Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda
Year Released: 2015
Rating: 2.0
Three young Japanese women take in their half-sister after the passing of their father (who abandoned them and their mother) and the result is ... well, they all get along very well (and eat a lot). That's the gist of it. Kore-eda said in an interview that he's 'more Ken Loach than Ozu,' but he couldn't be more wrong - he's definitely channeling Ozu with this one, only stripping away any kind of tension: everyone's so pleasant and kind and supportive, and even when there's a slight 'argument' (if one can even call it that), it gets resolved almost immediately (even death is treated as a Hallmark card moment, with everyone 'learning valuable lessons' from people passing on). I originally thought the nonstop scenes of eating were supposed to be a joke ... but no, Kore-eda isn't exactly known for his humor - to paraphrase a line from Seinfeld, "The ocean called, they're running out of mackerel."
