Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda's latest film brims with optimism
Thankful for the support he received when starting out, Kore-eda now wants to help the next generation - although, as he admits, his reasons aren't strictly altruistic
Last year, Hirokazu Kore-eda ended his long spell with production outfit TV Man Union - which he joined as a fresh graduate from Waseda University in 1987 - to strike out on his own. He named his company Bunbuku, which translates as "spreading the blessings" - a self-explanatory handle speaking volumes about what the Japanese filmmaker seeks to achieve.
"I received a lot of support when I made my first film, so I want to return the favour from the other way round - I don't just want to take things from the industry," says the director, who has already produced films by Iseya Yusuke ( Kakuto), Miwa Nishikawa ( Wild Berries) and Mami Sunada (the award-winning documentary Ending Note: Death of a Japanese Salesman) before he founded his own new banner.
And the 53-year-old has certainly absorbed a lot of different energies from his collaborators. While distinct themes have remained very much intact across his oeuvre, changes have also been afoot in Kore-eda's cinematic universe. The melancholy and anguish permeating his early films - such as Maborosi (1995) and Distance (2001) - have largely given way to more sanguine stories in recent years.
And Kore-eda's latest film is brimming with an optimism seldom seen before in his work. Taking off from the abundant human goodness that drives his two previous films, I Wish (2011) and Like Father, Like Son (2013), Our Little Sister is fantastically cuddly and conflict-free. Based on Yoshida Akimi's graphic novel Umimachi Diary, it revolves around three young women bringing a step-sibling into their midst.
Having lived by themselves in their late grandmother's house for years, the Koda sisters - the disciplined nurse Sachi (Haruka Ayase), the free-living bank clerk Yoshino (Masami Nagasawa) and the quirky shop assistant Chika (Kaho) - learn of the death of their father, who walked out on them 15 years ago. While at the funeral, they discover the existence of their half-sister Suzu (Suzu Hirose); learning of the youngster's disagreements with her own stepmother, the Kodas decide to invite the teenager to move in with them.