Our Little Sister

Three sisters living together in Kamakura meet their fourteen-year-old half-sister Suzu at the funeral of the father who left them years earlier, and invite her home. Hirokazu Kore-eda adapted it from Akimi Yoshida's manga Umimachi Diary. His usual subject is at the centre again: family is made by time spent together rather than by blood. Haruka Ayase, Masami Nagasawa, Kaho and Suzu Hirose play the four sisters. It competed for the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2015. In Japan it grossed 1.55 billion yen. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 94 percent and Metacritic at 75, with critics praising its universal and deeply moving observations on the human condition. At the Japan Academy Prize it took twelve nominations and won four, including Picture of the Year and Director of the Year. All four actresses were nominated or won, with Suzu Hirose named Newcomer of the Year. Who it is for: viewers who like calm, incident-free family films that move through seasons. Who it is not for: anyone waiting for conflict. The film generates almost no tension and reads as too gentle for some.