Shoplifters (2018)
★★★½ — Shoplifters (2018)
Shoplifters arrived at a point in Hirokazu Kore-eda's career when he was already regarded as one of Japan's finest working directors, following a run of quietly observed family dramas including Nobody Knows (2004), Still Walking (2008), and Like Father, Like Son (2013). Produced by Fuji Television and the boutique outfit BUN-BUKU (Kore-eda's own production company), it is a modestly scaled film in the tradition of Japanese social realism, drawing loose thematic comparisons to Yasujiro Ozu while addressing very contemporary concerns around poverty and precarity in modern Tokyo. The film won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2018, only the second Japanese film to do so after Shohei Imamura's The Eel in 1997, and went on to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film.
Shoplifters (2018), Hirokazu Kore-eda's Palme d'Or winner, is a quietly devastating portrait of kinship forged not by blood, but by necessity and tenderness. On the margins of Tokyo, a ragged assembly of individuals (a laborer, a seamstress?, a young boy, an elderly woman, and others) cobble together a fragile household bound by shared secrets and small acts of care. They steal to survive, lie to protect one another, and in their cramped, cluttered apartment, create something resembling family. Kore-eda's direction is characteristically gentle, observational, and achingly humane. The pacing is deliberate, a slow burn that immerses you in the rhythms of their daily lives: shared meals, whispered conversations, stolen moments of joy. The performances are uniformly superb, especially Lily Franky as the weary patriarch and Miyoshi as the grandmother whose quiet dignity anchors the group. The soundtrack is minimal but perfectly judged, letting silence carry as much weight as dialogue. The film's final act delivers a gut-punch of emotional and moral complexity, sudden, staggering, and utterly earned. It reframes everything that came before without betraying the story's delicate humanity. A beautifully acted, moving film that lingers after the credits. Its patience may test some viewers, but those who surrender to its rhythm will find a compassionate meditation on what it means to belong. Not perfect, but unforgettable.
Rating: ★★★½ | Year: 2018 | Watched: 2026-03-15
Where to watch (UK)
Stream: BFI Player · BFI Player Amazon Channel · BFI Player Apple TV Channel · Channel 4 Plus
Rent: Apple TV Store · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies · Sky Store
Buy: Apple TV Store · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon UK
Affiliate disclosure: Movies With Macca may earn a small commission on purchases or subscriptions started via these links. It costs you nothing extra.
Related on Movies With Macca
More from Japan: Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025) · Blue (1993) · The Ghost of Yotsuya (1959)
More from the 2010s: Wonder (2017) · Beautiful Boy (2018) · The Witch (2015) · What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
More drama: Viy (1967) · Wonder (2017) · A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Beautiful Boy (2018)
More crime: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Angst (1983) · Stolen Face (1952) · Cairo Station (1958)
