Our Little Sister - Wikipedia

Our Little Sister - Wikipedia

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Our Little Sister

Poster
Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda
Screenplay by Hirokazu Kore-eda
Based on Umimachi Diary
by Akimi Yoshida
Produced by
Kaoru Matsuzaki
Hijiri Taguchi
Starring
Haruka Ayase
Masami Nagasawa
Kaho
Suzu Hirose
Ryo Kase
Kentaro Sakaguchi
Ryohei Suzuki
Cinematography Mikiya Takimoto
Edited by Hirokazu Kore-eda
Music by Yoko Kanno

Production
companies
Toho
GAGA corporation
Fuji Television Network
Shogakukan
TV Man Union
Distributed by
Toho
GAGA corporation

Release dates
May 14, 2015 (Cannes)
June 13, 2015 (Japan)

Running time 126 minutes
Country Japan
Language Japanese
Box office ¥1.55 billion[1]


Our Little Sister (Japanese: 海街 diary, Hepburn: Umimachi Diary, lit. "Seaside town diary") is a 2015 Japanese drama film directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda and based on Akimi Yoshida's manga series Umimachi Diary. It stars Haruka Ayase, Masami Nagasawa, Kaho and Suzu Hirose. The film follows three sisters living in Kamakura, alongside their half sister.[2] It was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival.[3][4]
Plot[edit]

Three sisters, Sachi Kōda, Yoshino Kōda and Chika Kōda, live in the house of their grandparents in Kamakura. Their parents are divorced. One day, they receive news of the death of their father, whom they have not seen in fifteen years. At the funeral, they meet their half-sister, fourteen year old Suzu Asano. Suzu is living with her stepmother and stepbrother. Observing the behaviour of the stepmother at the funeral (she tries to pass on the responsibility of addressing the guests to Suzu), Sachi guesses that Suzu looked after their father as he died, not the stepmother. At the train station Sachi spontaneously invites Suzu to come and live with them. Suzu joins the local football team and becomes popular as the relationship develops.
Cast[edit]Haruka Ayase as Sachi Kōda
Masami Nagasawa as Yoshino Kōda
Kaho as Chika Kōda
Suzu Hirose as Suzu Asano, the Kōda's younger half sister
Ryo Kase as Sakashita, Suzu’s soccer coach in Kamakura
Kentaro Sakaguchi as Tomoaki Fujii
Ryohei Suzuki as Yasuyuki Inoue
Takafumi Ikeda
Ōshirō Maeda
Midoriko Kimura
Kirin Kiki as Fumiyo Kikuchi
Jun Fubuki as Sachiko Ninomiya, a cafe owner
Lily Franky as Sen-ichi Fukuda
Shinichi Tsutsumi as Kazuya Shiina, a married doctor who is having an affair with Sachi
Shinobu Otake as Miyako Sasaki, the mother of Sachi, Yoshino and ChikaKore-eda and stars promoting the film at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival.
Production[edit]

The film was produced by Fuji Television, Shogakukan, Toho and Gaga Corporation.[5] Principal photography began in July 2014.[6]
Release[edit]

The film premiered at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. The film was released in Japan on June 13, 2015.[7] It premiered in London, England on October 14, 2015 as part of the BFI London Film Festival[8] It was released in South Korea in 2016.
Box office[edit]

The film has grossed ¥1.55 billion in Japan.[1]
Critical response[edit]

Rotten Tomatoes reports a 94% approval rating for Our Little Sister, based on 123 critics, with an average score of 7.8/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Our Little Sister uses the story of one fractured family to offer universal -- and deeply moving -- observations on the human condition."[9] The film also holds a 75/100 average rating on Metacritic, based on 31 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[10] Steven Rea of The Philadelphia Inquirer gave it a full four stars and said that "this is the kind of movie that will leave you feeling restored, maybe a little misty-eyed as well".[11] Calvin Wilson of St. Louis Post-Dispatch referred to it as "a beautiful drama with comedic undertones about the tension between the comforts of family life and the vast possibilities beyond it. [...] an insightful film that bears comparison to the work of British directors Mike Leigh and Ken Loach."[12]

A. O. Scott of The New York Times praised the film's plot: "Seeming to wander through small incidents and mundane busyness, it acquires momentum and dramatic weight through a brilliant kind of narrative stealth." He said the film "goes down as easily as a sip of the plum wine the sisters brew and yet leaves the viewer both sated and intoxicated."[13] Kenji Fujishima of The Village Voice found the film less powerful than Kore-eda's Still Walking (2008) and Like Father, Like Son (2013), writing that the film has "an emotional reticence that at times verges on too subtle for its own good. [...] moments of bitterness and anguish don’t quite have the gut-punch impact they ought to have." Still, Fujishima commended the acting and also lauded one scene as showing "the laudable humanity at the heart of Kore-eda’s patient, warmhearted worldview".[14]

It was Christian Blauvelt's choice in IndieWire's 2018 list of the best Japanese films of the 21st century, with Blauvelt writing that "Kore-eda doesn’t delve into the histrionics usually involved with depictions of “broken families” in American films – these young women know they have to make do, get on with life, and leave the self-pity behind."[15]
Accolades[edit]

Our Little Sister received the most nominations (12) at the 39th Japan Academy Prize, winning four of them including Picture of the Year and Director of the Year. The four actresses who portrayed the sisters were all awarded or nominated for the acting awards (Haruka Ayase was nominated for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role, Masami Nagasawa and Kaho were nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Leading Role and Suzu Hirose won Newcomer of the Year).[16]

The film also won Audience Award at San Sebastián International Film Festival.[17]
References[edit]
^ Jump up to:a b Kevin Ma (2015-07-30). "Hero victorious for second week in Japan". Film Business Asia. Archived from the original on 1 April 2016. Retrieved 2015-08-02.
^ Ma, Kevin (28 May 2014). "Kore-eda Hirokazu adapts Kamakura Diary". Film Business Asia. Archived from the original on 2015-04-07. Retrieved 2015-04-03.
^ "2015 Official Selection". Festival de Cannes. Archived from the original on 2015-04-18. Retrieved 2015-04-16.
^ "Screenings Guide". Festival de Cannes. 2015-05-06. Archived from the original on 2015-05-18. Retrieved 2015-05-08.
^ Noh, Jean (2015-03-23). "Filmart 2015: Hot titles - Japan". Screen International. Retrieved 2021-03-09.
^ "Haruka Ayase Stars in Hirokazu Kore-eda's Umimachi Diary Film". Anime News Network. 2014-06-23. Retrieved 2021-03-09.
^ "Our Little Sister". gaga.co.jp. Gaga Corporation. Archived from the original on 2019-01-04. Retrieved 2015-04-03.
^ "BFI London Film Festival 2015: 30 recommendations". www.bfi.org.uk. 2015-10-13. Retrieved 2021-03-09.
^ "Our Little Sister". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved October 10, 2021.
^ "Our Little Sister Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive Inc. Retrieved 2021-03-09.
^ Rea, Steven (2016-07-29). "'Our Little Sister,' Japanese director Koreeda's gentle, joyous study of sisterhood". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved 2021-03-09.
^ Wilson, Calvin (2016-09-15). "'Our Little Sister' is cinema at its finest". St. Louis Post Dispatch. Retrieved 2021-03-09.
^ Scott, A. O. (2016-07-07). "Review: 'Our Little Sister,' or What We Found at Dad's Funeral (Published 2016)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
^ Fujishima, Kenji (2016-07-08). "Kore-eda Sets His Empathic Gaze on Another Troubled Family in 'Our Little Sister' | The Village Voice". Village Voice. Retrieved 2021-03-09.
^ Ehrlich, David (2018-03-26). "The Best Japanese Films of the 21st Century — IndieWire Critics Survey". IndieWire. Retrieved 2021-03-09.
^ Hodgkins, Crystalyn (2016-01-18). "Umimachi Diary/Our Little Sister Film Nominated for 12 Japan Academy Prize Awards". Anime News Network. Retrieved 2021-03-09.
^ ?"Uminachi Diary/Our Little Sister". San Sebastián International Film Festival. Retrieved 2021-03-09.
External links[edit]Official website (in Japanese)
海街diary(2015) at allcinema (in Japanese)
海街diary at KINENOTE (in Japanese)
Sony Pictures Classics official site
Our Little Sister at IMDb
Our Little Sister at AllMovie
Our Little Sister at Box Office Mojo


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Japan Academy Film Prize for Best Film



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Films directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda




Our Little Sister
Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda
A masterwork by Japan's foremost director of miniature films suffused with beauty, everyday spirituality, and subtle grace.


History Buff
5.0 out of 5 stars The fact that Suzu looks like her mother
Reviewed in the United States on 3 February 2018
Verified Purchase
Our Little Sister: A Masterpiece
(My review first appeared in Huffington Press when the film was released)


Our Little Sister is a film of surpassing beauty and sensitivity, a fully realized insight into family, a simple story of three sisters living together who are joined by their half sister. It unfolds patiently, with elegance and understanding.


The three Koda sisters — Sachi, Yoshino and Chika — live together in Kamakura by the sea. Years earlier they were abandoned to live in their grandmother’s house. First their father left their mother for another woman. Then their mother ran off with another man. 30-year-old Sachi (Haruka Ayase), a nurse at a nearby hospital, kept the family together, raising the younger sisters.


When the sisters hear of their father’s death, they decide to put aside old feelings of abandonment to travel to his funeral. At the memorial service, they encounter Suzu Asano (Suzu Hirose), their father’s child with his third wife. Their meeting is at first uncomfortable. Feelings about the father are unresolved. But the open kindness of young Suzu disarms skepticism.


Sachi spontaneously invites Suzu to come live with them. Suzu gratefully accepts. She fits in quickly and well. Clearly, she is mature beyond her 13 years, having nursed her declining father. Suzu is helpful and upbeat. She adapts to school and community, as well. Skillful in soccer and proficient in studies, she wins friends, including one particularly interested boy. She enjoys hanging out with classmates at the local diner.


There are bumps in the road. But they are slight. The fact that Suzu looks like her mother, the woman who lured their father away, gives the sisters pause. As their grandmother warns, “She’s the daughter of the woman who destroyed your family.”


Through her quiet, supportive presence, Suzu provides a foil for the other sisters’ character development. Chika (Kaho) and her boyfriend who has lost six toes on Mt. Everest are always upbeat. Sachi’s secret affair with a married doctor at her hospital is more problematic. Yoshino’s (Masami Nagasawa) serial failed romances and flightiness give even less promise for her future.


But the four sisters grow together. Normal family occasions, maintenance, tasks and issues rise and are resolved or dispatched. Suzu is woven into the fabric of their daily lives, complementing her siblings, even filling in spaces in their knowledge and memories. She shares reminiscences of their father that help the other sisters better understand their father and themselves. By film’s end, they are bound by family and friendship, commonalities and differences. They are a family of four women learning from their experience to build a better life together.


The story is presented through the sparse, but knowing dialogue of writer Akimi Yoshida and director Kore-eda Hirokazu adapted from Yoshida’s graphic novel Umimachi Diary. It is exquisitely framed by Kore-eda’s breathtaking tracking shots of the sisters at the railway station, at their house window and at film’s conclusion against the Kamakura seashore.


Our Little Sister won nine Japanese Academy Awards, including Best Actor, Best Director and Best Film.


Although it may be heresy, one cannot view “Our Little Sister” and other work by Kore-eda (Still Walking, Like Father, Like Son, After Life) without thinking of the towering postwar achievements of Tokyo Story Director Yasujiro Ozu (Late Spring, Early Summer, An Autumn Afternoon). There is no higher compliment.
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5.0 out of 5 stars 일본의 BD 플레이어에서는 재생할 수 없다.
Reviewed in Japan on 30 March 2020
Verified Purchase
리전 코드가 B이므로 일본의 BD 플레이어에서는 볼 수 없다. 그러나 어떤 방법을 사용하면 볼 수 있습니다. 불법인지 확실하지 않으므로 여기서는 그 방법은 적지 않는다. 흥미가 있는 분은 「aacs」로 검색한다고 알 수 있다. 또 하나, 유료 소프트를 사용하면 합법적으로 시청할 수 있다. 무료 소프트웨어도 몇 가지 시도했지만 어렵다. 재생할 수 있어도, 화면의 중앙에 로고가 표시되어 보고 있어 시끄럽기 때문에 실용적이지 않다. 자막도 표시되지 않는다.


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오랜만에 내 기미를 만지는 영화를 볼 수 있었다. 이 중에서 사용되고 있는 대사가 영어로는 어떤 식으로 표현될 것인가에 관심이 들었고, 이 영어판을 손에 넣었다. 가격도 일본의 1/5. 압도적으로 싸다. 캐나다에 체재하고 있던 대로도, 어째서 일본의 DVD는 이렇게 높을 것이라고 생각하고 있었지만, 영국판은 더욱 싸다.
하나만 불평하면 번역이 그다지 좋지 않다. 구미의 영화관에 표시되고 있는 번역이라고 생각하고 있으면, 아무래도 이 소프트 회사가 독자적으로 번역한 것 같고, 오역이나 변역이 있다. 예를 들어, 아야세 하루카와 나가사와 마사미가 싸우는 장면에서, 「의지로 하고 있지 않다」라고 하는 번역에 「spite」라는 단어가 씌어져 있지만, 이것으로는 의지악이라든지 악의라는 의미가 되어 버린다. 오히려, 「stubborn」이라든지 「pride」가 의미로서는 맞다고 생각한다. 또, 처음 주석에 맞았을 때, 주석이 「어머니의 동반자입니다」라고 하는 이유로 「step-mother's son」이라고 직역되어 있지만, 이것이라고 하면, half-brother인가 step-brother인가 어느 쪽인지 모른다. 여기에서는 분명히 「step-brother」라고 번역해서는 안 되는 것일까. 이 영화에서는 계누 관계가 중요한 의미를 가지고 있기 때문에, 이 근처의 번역은 신중하게 해 주었으면 했다. 그 밖에도? 라는 곳에는 몇 가지가 있지만, 전반적으로 좋은 것은 아닐까. 마지막 해변을 걷는 장면에서 아야세 하루카가 "이런 여동생을 남겨줬던 것"이라는 말을 직역하면 "such a little sister]로 하는 곳을 "such a lovely little sister"라고 번역한 것은 능숙하다 라고 생각한다.
영화는 엔터테인먼트이기 때문에, 롤러 코스터적인 신축성이 있는 드러스틱하고 드라마틱한 시추에이션이 있는 영화가 좋다고 한다. 영화제에서 수상 영화가 전형적일 것이다. 물론 나도 그런 영화는 좋아하지만, 어느 쪽이라든가 이 영화처럼 조용히 느긋하게 마음의 코토선을 접하는 영화 쪽을 좋아한다. 내가 좋아하는 우디 알렌의 "인테리어"를 상기시켜라.
불행히도, 칸에서는 지금 하나 고조되지 않았던 것 같지만, 1명만, 팔무르에게 추격한 심사원이 있었던 것이 기쁘다.
히로세 스즈라는 여배우에는 전혀 흥미가 없었지만, 이 영화를 보고 흥미가 왔다. 왜냐하면 히로세 주석의 표정 연기의 경이로움에 놀랐기 때문이다. 시라스 덮밥을 먹을 때 "응, 처음"이라고 거짓말을 할 때의 표정과 어색하다. 장례식 후 3명을 쫓아와 사진을 건네준 뒤 이별의 말을 내기 전에 3명의 언니들을 바라보는 희미한 애절함. 「갑니다」라고 할 때의 3명을 올려다 보는 결의와 기쁨의 표정. 마지막으로 릴리 프랭키가 말한 후부키 준의 마지막 말이 아버지의 마지막 말과 겹쳐서 놀라서 서서히 그리고 약간 약간 변화하는 표정. 그 이외에도 많이 있다. 히로세 스즈는 어쨌든 여배우로 대성하는 것이 아닐까···
이 영화가 지루하고 싫다는 사람도 있을 것이다. 그것은 잘 이해한다. 그러나, 이런 영화에야말로 마음 흔들리고 싶으면 한다.