Our Little Sister

Director: Hirokazu Koreeda Hirokazu Koreeda

Overview

At their estranged father's funeral, three twentysomething siblings (Haruka Ayase, Masami Nagasawa, and Kaho) learn that they have a teenage half sister (Suzu Hirose), and invite her to live with them in the seaside town of Kamakura. In time, her presence forces them to reflect on their own lives and family ties. Written and directed by Hirokazu Koreeda, Our Little Sister is based on the Japanese comic series Umimachi Diary by Akimi Yoshida.

Product Details

Release Date:	11/22/2016
UPC:	0043396480735
Original Release:	2015
Rating:	PG
Source:	SONY PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMT
Region Code:	1
Sound:	[Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	2:07:00
Sales rank:	23,648

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Haruka Ayase	Sachi Koda
Kaho	Chika Koda
Masami Nagasawa	Yoshino Koda
Suzu Hirose	Suzu Asano
Ryô Kase	Actor,Yoshimi Sakashita
Ryohei Suzuki	Dr. Yasuyuki Inoue,Actor
Takafumi Ikeda	Sanzo Hamada
Kentarô Sakaguchi	Tomoaki Fujii
Ohshiro Maeda	Actor,Fûta Ozaki
Midoriko Kimura	Hideko Takano,Yoshimi Tokuno
Yuko Nakamura	Yôko Asano
Jun Fubuki	Sachiko Ninomiya
Kazuaki Shimizu	Toshio Iida
Shinichi Tsutsumi	Dr. Kazuya Shiina,Actor
Masumi Nomura	Nurse
Shinobu Ohtake	Miyako Sasaki
Fight Seki	Masashi Ogata
Saya Mikami	Miho Kaneko
Yôko Ataka	Shino Yamane
Kirin Kiki	Fumiyo Kikuchi
Yoko Kanno	Composer

Technical Credits

Hirokazu Koreeda

Hirokazu Koreeda	Director,Screenwriter
Kaoru Matsuzaki	Producer
Taguchi Hijiri	Producer
Makoto Ohmura	Executive Producer
Yasushi Ogawa	Executive Producer
Minami Ichikawa	Executive Producer
Megumi Nishihara	Executive Producer
Satomi Odake	Executive Producer
Toshie Tabata	Casting
Yu Kumagai	Production Manager

Editorial Reviews

It could almost be told as a fairy tale: Once there was a house, a very special house, with paper screens and sliding doors and wooden walls as old as time. And in this house lived three grown sisters: sober and responsible eldest sister Sachi (Haruka Ayase), modern-gal middle sister Yoshino (Masami Nagasawa), and quirky youngest sister Chika (Kaho). They had no mother, no father, and no husbands in their lives, but all was well in their little world until they learned that their father had died, in a town far, far away. The three sisters attended his funeral, only to discover that their father had remarried and sired another sister, a gracious and mature 15-year-old named Suzu (Suzu Hirose). Director Hirokazu Koreeda is known for his achingly poignant movies centered on the theme of family connections and loss. But Our Little Sister is decidedly lighter in tone -- in fact, this film could almost be seen as a happy bookend to his 2004 drama Nobody Knows, which focused on four young siblings who were left to fend for themselves in a Tokyo apartment after being abandoned by their mother. These four sisters have also been abandoned by their parents, but they thrive anyway, just like the venerable plum tree still fruiting behind their enchanted family home. Their lives are content, but far from perfect. One sister is having an affair with a married man, despite her resentment that her father ran off with someone else. Another sister drinks too much. They get in fights over borrowed blouses and whose turn it is to answer the phone. Boyfriends come and go. The seasons turn from a brisk spring to a languid summer, when they watch fireworks and eat tiny fish during the one week when the creatures crowd the river. (And that's not the only local delicacy they sink their teeth into. Our Little Sister isn't a lusty foodie movie in the vein of Eat Drink Man Woman or Chocolat, but enough scenes take place during mealtimes to spark a craving for Japanese cuisine.) Despite the smattering of adult themes, Our Little Sister has a delicate rural innocence not unlike some of Hayao Miyazaki's animated features. It's no surprise that the film was adapted from a manga series called Umimachi Diary; its mise-en-scène is very much like a Japanese comic, with static frames, lingering pauses, and a stately, page-turning pace. There are no great thunderbolts of emotion as in Koreeda's other work, but fans of the director's more heartrending movies may appreciate this buoyant palate cleanser.