Our Little Sister (2015) - Japanese Movie Review

Erik, the Asian Movie Enthusiast presents:

A review of “Our Little Sister”, a Japanese drama from 2015.

This is a film about three adult sisters – 29-year-old Sachi, 22-year-old Yoshino, 19-year-old Chika – who take in their half-sister after their father passes away. That’s basically the premise, and almost all of the runtime is spent on how the sisters bond and interact.

A fantastic female centric film.

[stevecheevers]

One of Hirokazu Koreeda's most underrated films, probably along with his 2001 film Distance. While Distance is probably Koreeda's most downbeat film, I think Our Little Sister is one of his most uplifting films he's ever done. With such a world class film canon, even a great film like this one will be overshadowed by the directors classic work. But I think this is a good companion piece with 2008's Still Walking, it has the same kind of laidback feel to it.

I love all the performances from all the actresses playing the sisters, special mention for Haruka Ayase as kind of happy go lucky sister with her older manager boyfriend, she's not as focused on as much as the other sisters but she's great in this. Also Suzu Hirose as the younger half sister who is the little sister of the title, thanks to her performance you can see why her older siblings just take her to their heart. She's one of the most loveable characters from a Koreeda film and Suzu performance delivers it. It's not a film filled with major drama or anything and there's nothing grandstanding about it, but it's one of those films when it ends you want it go on forever.

My top 3 Koreeda is probably Nobody Knows, Shoplifters and After Life, but Our Little Sister isn't that far behind those films.

[morse]

It's been released on DVD/Blu-ray here in UK for some time but I still haven't got around to seeing it yet. It's higher up my list after this review!

[EigaManRay]

I watched this film in the theaters here in Japan. A really well-done film! Great review.

Yeah Hirose Suzu, who was a new-face at the time this film was released, is everywhere here now. She is extremely popular!
So far in 2016 she has had 2 starring films come out - Chihayafuru 1 and 2 - and 2 more coming out next month - and Your Lie in April and Anger. I didn't/won't watch the former 3 in the theaters because they are adaptations of girls' comics, and being a non-tween it would be kind of embarrassing to enter the theater for them. But Anger looks exciting with its all-star cast!

[scottseitz]

Another good movie I just watched recently with Haruka Ayase is called "Color Me True" aka "Tonight at the Movies." It was very good. A real pleasant surprise at how much I liked it.

[Adityaellyus]

Could you do a review on a movie called Fish Story, before you watch it try not do so much research on it, might ruin the movie a little.