Our Little Sister (Sony Pictures Classics, 2015)
There’s no avoiding schmaltz and melodrama; they’ve been a part of our filmgoing experience since Griffith. But careful consideration of melodramatic stories can help us distinguish what is an honest expression of a strongly felt emotion from maudlin exploitation. When so many movies and TV shows exploit moments to give us cheap feels, Hirokazu Koreeda’s Our Little Sister lets finely expressed moments build on one another, making Our Little Sister a feel-good movie without making us feel like we’re being sold a feel-good movie: it’s a successful family drama with true niceness at its core.
This niceness may stem from the primary narrative interest in three warm characters. Three young-adult Japanese sisters, Sachi (Haruka Ayase), Yoshino (Masami Nagasawa), and Chika (Kaho), live together in their childhood home. They learn that their father, from whom they were relatively estranged, has passed away. The three travel to a remote village for his funeral where they meet the young girl, Suzu (Suzu Hirose), who was the product of the marriage between their father and his mistress (the relationship that resulted in their parents’ divorce). Half impetuously, the eldest sister—the true guardian of the family—invites the teenage half-sister to live with the older three. Just as impetuously, the young girl agrees. The four sisters living together in their large but storied home ultimately dictates the brunt of the film’s narrative
Our Little Sister (Sony Pictures Classics, 2015)
One reason the film so deftly avoids sentimentality (and trust me, there are plenty of times it could have overindulged but didn’t) is that it doesn’t heavily rely on a linear narrative, like many melodramas would. It’s more picaresque than conflict/resolution. In one climactic scene, the three sisters are briefly reunited with their distant mother Sasaki (Otake Shinobu) during a funeral. The mother and the oldest, most responsible daughter get into a fight; there’s no plate smashing or screaming or even tears. But this brief moment explains so many brief moments that come before. In another wonderful scene, the vivacious middle sister, Yoshino, confides in Chika that she wishes the half-sister would turn out more like her than the slightly more uptight Sachi. Koreeda and actresses Kaho and Masami Nagasawa deliver this sentiment without any malice toward the older sister, but instead with fondness for Chika’s plucky disposition. We see Yoshino project the idea of the younger sister she is accustomed to onto her new youngest sister, and it brims with tenderness. These and many moments like them are as interdependent as the sisters themselves, creating a portrait of a family that’s simple yet profound.
Watching Our Little Sister, the viewer should be able to palpably sense the presence of the ghost of Yasujiro Ozu informing the film’s visuals and themes. But Koreeda harnesses the Ozu of I Was Born, But… (1932) and Good Morning (1959)—that is to say, the lighter Ozu. And even operating with this light but finely felt touch, Koreeda manages to make the material feel very modern. His camera isn’t afraid of roving a little or closing in on a pained or relaxed or irritated or exalted expression. What’s more, Koreeda creates a stylistic rapprochement with the audience; when the sisters are admiring something they find beautiful, Koreeda shows it to us in a beautiful way—we are aligned with the sisters’ sense of beauty, allowing us to ease even deeper in their world of complicated emotions and alliances.
So if you like schmaltz but are looking for something more—something more subtle than, say, The Descendants (2011) (which seems to be deservedly serving out its afterlife in the $3 dollar DVD bin at the used record store nearest you), but not as weighty as Tokyo Story (1953)—Our Little Sister is perfect for you.
Author Biography
John Bennett is a recent graduate of Muhlenberg College (class of 2015), where he studied cinema, literature, and French. His piece on Visconti’s Senso appeared in The Valley Humanities Review, and his feature-length comedy, The Outer Loop (2013), was nominated for the Best Feature award at the Greater Lehigh Valley Filmmakers’ Festival. The full film can be seen at: https://vimeo.com/84655047
Film Details
Our Little Sister (2015)
Japan
Director Hirokazu Koreeda
Runtime 128 minutes
