Shoplifters

Shoplifters is a sensitively portrayed look at a charming surrogate family living on the fringe of society, making a compelling case for the way families we create or fall in with can sometimes be more meaningful and satisfying than the families we are born into.

The cinema of Japan’s Hirokazu Kore-eda from Nobody Knows (2004), Like Father, Like Son (2013), Our Little Sister (2015), and After the Storm (2016), have all had a similar thread underlying these stories of unconventional families created out of genuine kindness under crisis situations who share a special bond that goes deeper than blood relations.

Cannes Palme d’Or winner, Shoplifters, focuses Kore-eda’s themes of what it means to be a family more powerfully than any of his previous films, while also commenting on Japan’s social class system. Along with Our Little Sister, it’s one of his best films.

Where Our Little Sister was a gentle upbeat feel-good story of sisters living in their mother’s ancestral home who take in a young girl after the death of their father; their half-sister, Shoplifters is decidedly less optimistic showing a bleaker more tragic heartrending side of humanity.

What at first appears to be a poor family of part-time vagrants living together in a packed shared accommodation among urban dwellings in a Japanese neighborhood, is slowly revealed to be a loving group of outcasts who have come together to help each other for mutual benefit. They share everything and despite the extremely difficult living arrangement, the group seems to thrive and enjoy each other’s company, engaging in family outings and activities.

A kind-hearted and generous low-income couple in their 30s and 40s, Osamu (Lily Franky) and Nobuyo (Sakura Ando), living with an elderly lady, Hatsue (Kirin Kiki), left to fend for herself by her own family, have adopted a young boy, Shota (Jyo Kairi) who was abandoned, and a teen girl who works at a strip theatre. Osamu the father figure teaches the boy the art of shoplifting to supplement their meager earnings.

When they come across a 5-year-old girl, Yuri (Miyu Sasaki) who is neglected and abused by her mother and left out in the cold without food, Osamu decides to help her and takes her into his care. Yuri quickly thrives on the love and affection she receives from her new makeshift family. But when a news story appears on TV that a small girl has gone missing that fits Yuri’s description, the couple tries to return her to the parents. However, whether out of compassion for the girl or maybe for selfish reasons, doing the right thing becomes morally complicated.

The group of outcasts (shoplifters) forge a real bond and sense of belonging that’s stronger than any family they ever had. But when the police discover them, the consequences for everyone as the state returns the children to their real families are devastating. What Shoplifters does so well is show us how people from all ages and walks of life are being marginalized by a society that values individual gain and material wealth over human kindness and genuine affection.

Hirokazu Kore-eda uses his abundance of reality shooting style and dense interior locations that instantly puts you in the tight living spaces of typical Japanese homes. Visually, the film is dedicated to its characters and a high level of detail in their crammed surroundings.

Shoplifters is thought provoking and revealing of Japan’s growing threat to families for whom an addiction to social media and online living is causing them to neglect their everyday real-life existence instead of enhancing it.

JP

El Angel

Argentine filmmaker Luis Ortega’s stylish crime thriller El Angel set in Buenos Aires during the early 70s is based on the true story of a notorious 17-year-old baby-faced thief and killer with a fondness for burglarizing luxury suburban homes of the wealthy.

Eventually joining a crime gang, Carlos Robledo Puch aka El Angel was known as the Angel of Death for his innocent looking childlike demeanor and blond curly hair with a tendency to be quick on the trigger, casually robbing and killing innocent people while capturing the fascination of the Argentine media.

An all-star cast of well-known Latin American actors give solid performances and an especially riveting standout performance from newcomer Lorenzo Ferro in the title role of sexy serial killer Carlitos Robledo Puch.

Like El Clan (2015) from Argentine director Pablo Trapero three years earlier, this period in Argentina’s history is fertile ground for stories of intrigue, intimidation and crime, foreshadowing the country’s right-wing nationalist mentality and government corruption during the dictatorship era.

Carlitos comes from a middle-class family; his father, a vacuum cleaner salesman and his mother a home maker from German descent, try to raise him with good working-class values. But Carlitos has other ideas. He doesn’t believe in ownership like everyone else. He says in the film “I don’t believe in this is mine, and this is yours.” And he has a knack for breaking into places. At first he steals whatever takes his fancy and either keeps or gives them away as gifts to gain friends.

When he meets a schoolmate who he finds attractive, Ramón (Chino Darin), who comes from a crime family, he gains his friendship, quickly becoming partners, and proves himself to be a daring fearless thief but, to the alarm of Ramón’s family, also a loose cannon. He and his new crime family are soon pulling bigger and bigger jobs which invariably lead, almost casually at first, to deaths and murders that draw the attention of the authorities.

The 60s and 70s set design, consistent pacing, and vintage music give the movie an appealing authentic feel. Like the enigmatic character of pretty boy Carlos who loves to savor the time he spends while robbing magnificent posh estates, the movie presents us with the opulence and lavish lifestyle of the rich, then slowly as Carlos’ covetous greed grows and he becomes increasingly psychotic, his surroundings become decayed and empty reflecting his state of mind.

El Angel rocks with 70s fashion style and a stunning sensual performance by Lorenzo Ferro as Carlos who carries the film convincingly, showing us an intense portrait of a young merciless teen killer intoxicated with the power of his outrageous criminal acts. There is a palpable erotic tension between the two young thieves Carlos and Ramón that eventually turns deadly.

Ferro looks strikingly similar to the real Carlos as seen in pictures from that time period. The real Carlos Puch is still alive and is now famous for being the longest serving prisoner in Argentina’s history.

Produced by K&S Films and Pedro Almodovar’s company El Deseo who also gave us Wild Tales (2014) and The Clan (2015), Luis Ortega’s El Angel succeeds in giving us an aesthetic experience that’s daring, disturbing and highly entertaining.

JP