“Shoplifters”
It might seem hard to believe, but Hirokazu Koreeda’s Palme d’or-winning “Shoplifters,” a tale of a family of petty criminals who aren’t what they appear, was inspired by real events. Kore-eda had seen a news report about a family who kept receiving their deceased parent’s pension and another about a family that had their children help them shoplift.
“The first thing that came to my mind was the tagline, ‘Only the crimes tied us together.’ In Japan, crimes like pension frauds and parents making their children shoplift are criticized severely,” Kore-eda notes. “Of course, these criminals should be criticized, but I am wondering why people get so angry over such minor infractions even though there are many lawbreakers out there committing far more serious crimes without condemnation. Especially after the 2011 earthquake, I didn’t feel comfortable with people saying repeatedly that a family bond is important. So I wanted to explore it by depicting a family linked by crime.”
“Shoplifters” is also the final film of legendary Japanese actress Kirin Kiki, who died in September. Kiki portrayed the smarter-than-she-looks grandmother of the shoplifting family.
“Not only for this work, but for me she was always the partner who watched over me warmly at the same time rigorously by my side,” Kore-eda says. “Especially with this film, her performance and some of her improvisations cleared the direction of this work many times.”