OUR LITTLE SISTER – Review

Time again for another cinematic look at fractured, non-conventional families, a subject that’s also popular on TV and in novels. This story concerns a quartet of sisters, ranging from 13 to 29, sharing a home with no parental figures in sight (for most of the tale). You might think you’ve seen this “drama-dy” before , but not in this way, or in this unique setting. This family fable is not set in the US or Europe, but rather in Asia, Japan to be precise. It’s not adapted from a stage play, nor a standard literary best seller or “young adult” novel. This film springs from a comic book, which US academics now call “graphic novels”, but best known in the far East as “manga”, a medium usually thought to feature mind-blowing science fiction and strange supernatural fantasies. Hey, if our comics can delve into subjects other than superhero epics, then manga can certainly present a look at modern households. And another surprise is the identity of one of the studios involved, the beloved Toho Studios. Yes,  Toho, the home of that green, mean icon Godzilla. No buildings are smashed in this flick, but a few hearts are broken in OUR LITTLE SISTER.

The first sister we meet is 22-year-old Yoshino Kouda (Masami Nagasawa) as she awakens after a “sleep-over” with a slightly younger suitor, who asks her for a small loan till payday. This request nearly makes her late for breakfast at the house she shares with her two sisters. Head of the household is level-headed, 29-year-old Sachi (Haruka Ayase), a nurse, and 19-year-old Chika (Kaho), who works at a sports equipment shop in their seaside village. After their parents split up, the sisters took over the house of their late grandmother. They’ve had no dealings with either parent for years. All that changes, when Sachi reads a letter informing them of the death of their father. Married for a third time, he was the owner/manager of a resort many miles away. When the sisters take the train to the resort, they get another surprise. Seems that papa had a child with his deceased second wife (the one that he left their mama for), a daughter, 13-year-old Suzu (Suzu Hirose). This thrills Chika, who is not the “kid sister” anymore. Sachi observes that Suzu has little emotional connection with her newly widowed stepmother. This gives the elder Kouda an idea, which she shares with the others: Suzu should return home with them and the four sisters will share the ancestral house. Suzu readily agrees, and over the course of the next few months, she settles into her new school, becoming a soccer star and crushing on a teammate. Life goes on for the three older sisters has they experience love and loss, while opening their hearts to their new arrival.

By calling SISTER a sweet, disarming film full of charm and vitality may not fully do the work justice. Audiences expecting hugs, hearts, and flowers may be taken aback by the tougher aspects of the story and its characters. The most complex one may be Sachi, who seems to be the moral backbone of the family until we learn of her attempt at romance. She’s having a secret affair with a married doctor she works with at the hospital, a man who insists he will marry her once his wife is released from a mental health facility. Perhaps this accounts for her anger with her own parents, particularly her estranged mother who returns briefly for a family function, as Sachi is disgusted by her own trek into adultery. Ms. Ayase conveys this self-loathing with great sensitivity. Kaho displays a deft comic gift as the eccentric Chika, especially in the exchanges with her co-worker/beau who brags of losing several toes during a failed mountain climb (“I’ll take off my shoes and you can feel where they were, if you like!”). Hirose is also a delight as the lost teenager who begins to blossom with the help and guidance of her newly-discovered older siblings. The first big laugh in the film is courtesy of the energetic Nagaswa as the free-spirit Yoshino when she arrives at the spa that will host her dad’s memorial. Throwing her bags down on the floor of her guest room, she loudly proclaims “I need a beer!”. Prim and proper, demure young ladies? Not always, but they’re authentic. Nagaswa subtlety shifts her performance to reflect ‘Yoshi’s new maturity (no more deadbeat guys for her!).

Director Hirokazu Koreeda, in adapting Akimi Yoshida’s manga, never goes for the melodramatic. We’re always “a fly on the wall”, just observing this quartet over the course of several months. It’s a “slice of life” that often seems like a stir-fried mix of LITTLE WOMEN and SKINNY AND FATTY, the much-beloved 1958 Japanese film that aired as part of TV’s “The CBS Children’s Film Festival” (the first entry in 1967). The seaside village is a visual dream and the exotic meals will entrance “foodies” (gotta’ try that “whitebait” sometime). But most entrancing is the warm spirit of family reunion, forgiveness, and discovery that permeates every frame of OUR LITTLE SISTER.

4.5 Out of 5

OUR LITTLE SISTER opens everywhere and screens exclusively in the St. Louis area at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinemas.