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A microcosm in a sphere that has ignored, overlooked them; director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s (“After the Storm”) enchanting tale, beautifully scripted, has viewers rooting for the illegal success of the “shoplifters”: “Osamu” (Lily Franky) and “Shota” (Jyo Kairi) effortlessly depict a copacetic team of thieves (their wonderfully warped logic; “if it’s in a store, it belongs to no one”, satisfying the “shopping list” of their “family”; meandering home, they find “Yuri” (Miyu Sasaki) a five-year-old abused, limpid-eyed girl; keeping (not kidnapping) her and training her to be the next “Artful Dodger”. Their claustrophobic domicile shelters a “grandmother” (remarkable Kirin Kiki), “sisters” (Mayu Matsuoka, Sakura Ando), marginalized individuals, seeking livelihood in untoward, futile careers; the tiny home radiates warmth, frivolity and love; cuisine consumption is ubiquitous, with the exception of mouth-watering movies (“Big Night”, “Babette’s Feast”, “Jiro Dreams of Sushi”) never has gulping, slurping and burping resonated with such grand gratification, satiation.
“Shoplifters” on the surface is simplistic but gratuitously, gracefully evolves into a complexity astounding in depth; poverty in its nakedness, cloaks the immensity of wealth, lack of bitterness, charm of these haunting, indelible characters; demonstrating that integrity, greatness knows no parameters, residing in unlikely individuals, professions; “Shoplifters” gifts viewers a “slice of life”, shifting from the banal and gradually, meticulously, elevating to breathless heights, lives of colossal, unforgettable originality.
FOUR STARS!!!!
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