Admirable film.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

"Our Little Sister" is a simple, beautiful little film. It focuses on a small scale - a bunch of sisters who decide to start caring for their little half-sister after meeting her at their father's funeral - but the characters are universally relatable. It deals with themes of family, love, childhood, dealing with change, and human connection. If anything, this is a very human film.The cinematography is gorgeous, but subtle and subdued. The film goes along with a slow pace, but this helps it focus on the great beauty of the small moments in everyday life. Although the slow pace of the film make take some time to get into, all the characters feel lovable but flawed by the end. All of the performances, including child actors, are spot on. The slow build up has major payoff because the sentimentality of the film doesn't feel forced or exaggerated. These emotional moments are played pretty straight, and they all work immensely well.The film is simultaneously a coming of age story for the youngest sister, Suzu, and the oldest, Sachi, although it focuses on each character enough to feel emotionally attached to each one. Even most side characters are given a good degree of depth.This is a beautiful family film that doesn't just focus on the effect of family, but finding your own family. It's about solidarity with the people one loves despite everything that each person has gone through (or is going through).

Put aside a part of your clichés about Japan, the director Hirokazu Kore-eda immerses the viewer in the intimacy of three sisters whose personalities are way different. Their kindness leads them to welcome their half-sister whose existence was ignored by them. The photography, bright and refined, provides the movie with a goodwill whose secret is only kept by Japanese productions. Way more than a simple "feel good movie", "Our little sister" never falls into the pathos despite situations that would easily lend to it. Not dramatic nor a comedy, it's the movie's neutrality that is striking : scenes follow one after another without having a single impact on each other and yet, the camera's eye leads us to become infatuated with those four sisters that are learning to be happy together, each of them bounded by her own intrigue in the background. If the message can seem a little bit too bright, sometimes flirting with the gullible, we have no problem embracing this naivety, like during this beautiful biking scene where the blooming sakuras pass before our eyes. Full review on our blog Los Indiscretos : https://losindiscretos.org/english/our-little-sister-2015-hirokazu- koreeda/

Three sisters Sachi, Yoshino and Chika live together in their old house. Their father abandoned them as kids and ran our with another woman. Soon their mother followed suit and left them with their grandmother. As their father died, while already married to his third wife, they find their half sister Suzu, their father's daughter from her second wife. The movie tells the story with Suzu as a new addition to the house, including the friction with the sister's mother, Suzu's development in her new environment, and the deaths of close people the sisters know from childhood. I really like this movie. It's no secret that Japan can also produce gripping family drama stories like this. Our Little Sister (2015) tells us a "what if" story which may not happen in the real world, but the story's development is nicely logic and emotional at the same time, without having to be full with confrontation. I like how the story stretches wide enough but still gets confined into the limits of the small town where the sisters live in.What strikes as strange is that this is the second good Japan drama movie that has great story after Departures (2008). Both movies strongly feature themes related to death, particularly death of an estranged father. Both also focus on the live of small Japanese town instead of the metropolitan or the rural area.Acting-wise, Haruka Ayase, Masami Nagasawa, Kaho and Suzu Hirose did well in giving life to their characters. I like how the they kept their character steady along the whole two hours of the movie. They acted well that audience will easily sympathize to them, even though their characters have oddly awkward backgrounds facing each other, particularly Suzu to the sisters. My say for Our Little Sister (2015) is a solid 7 out of 10. For me it's a really recommended watch. But then again it may be hard to find this movie in local theaters.

All the Hollywood directors producing one comic-book sequel after the other (and all other directors as well) should see this film, they should turn away in shame, and quit directing. Movie is largely seen as a medium to entertain, yet it could be so much more.Watching this movie, in every scene, it is incomprehensible for a western viewer how it is filmed: There are only daily life scenes, nothing dramatic, yet it is such a heart-warming experience, a simple joy of watching people living their lives.The story follows 3 very different grown-up sisters who live independently in a big house. The father has left them when they were little, and now they learn that they yet have another little sister. Soon their little dormitory has an additional guest. The main characters are the youngest sister who tries to adapt to her new life, and the oldest sister who is determined to live her life lead by strength and kindness.Critics have compared Kore-eda with Ozu, because of his calm observation of life. Still, Ozu's films contain great sadness, while Kore-eda's movies ('Like Father,Like Son', 'Kiseki') are full of hope and joy for living. They show simple people trying to find happiness in life. It has a Zen-like quality: one doesn't need big dramatic events to show love and kindness, if you are looking close enough you will find it in the most ordinary things in daily life.This is one of the best movies I've ever seen.