is a 2015 Japanese

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

written, directed and edited by

Hirokazu Kore-eda is a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter, and editor. He began his career in television and has since directed more than a dozen feature films, including '' Nobody Knows'' (2004), '' Still Walking'' (2008), and '' After the Storm'' ( ...

and based on Akimi Yoshida's

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

series '' Umimachi Diary''. It stars

Haruka Ayase better known by the stage name , is a Japanese actress who started her career as a model in the year 2000. She has since become a leading actress in television and film. Career 2000–2004: Early career Ayase was invited by a friend to parti ...

Masami Nagasawa is a Japanese actress. She has had a prolific film career since her teenage years and has starred in various blockbusters, receiving multiple #Awards and nominations, accolades, including five Japan Academy Film Prize, Japan Academy Film Prizes a ...

, Kaho and

Suzu Hirose is a Japanese actress and model. Biography Hirose debuted as a model for Japanese fashion magazine '' Seventeen'', alongside her sister Alice. She gained fame when she starred with a group of actresses as the eponymous sister in the award-winn ...

. The film follows three sisters living in

Kamakura , officially , is a city of Kanagawa Prefecture in Japan. It is located in the Kanto region on the island of Honshu. The city has an estimated population of 172,929 (1 September 2020) and a population density of 4,359 people per km2 over the tota ...

, alongside their half sister. It was selected to compete for the

Palme d'Or The (; ) is the highest prize awarded to the director of the Best Feature Film of the Official Competition at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festiv ...

at the

2015 Cannes Film Festival The 68th Cannes Film Festival took place from 13 to 24 May 2015. Coen brothers, Ethan and Joel Coen were the Co-Presidents of the Jury for the main competition, marking the first time that two people co-chaired the jury. Since the Coen brothers ...

Plot

Three sisters, Sachi Kōda, Yoshino Kōda and Chika Kōda, live in the house of their grandparents in

. Their parents are divorced. One day, they receive news of the death of their father, whom they have not seen in fifteen years. At the funeral, they meet their half-sister, fourteen year old Suzu Asano. Suzu is living with her stepmother and stepbrother. Observing the behaviour of the stepmother at the funeral (she tries to pass on the responsibility of addressing the guests to Suzu), Sachi guesses that Suzu looked after their father as he died, not the stepmother. At the train station Sachi spontaneously invites Suzu to come and live with them. Suzu joins the local football team and becomes popular as the relationship develops.

Cast

as Sachi Kōda *

as Yoshino Kōda * Kaho as Chika Kōda *

as Suzu Asano, the Kōda's younger half sister * Ryo Kase as Sakashita, Suzu’s soccer coach in Kamakura *

Kentaro Sakaguchi is a Japanese actor and model. He debuted as a model in ''Men's Non-no'' magazine in 2010, and as an actor under Tristone Entertainment in 2014. He has since starred in television series '' Tokyo Tarareba Musume'' (2017) and ''Signal'' (2018), ...

as Tomoaki Fujii *

Ryohei Suzuki is a Japanese actor who is represented by the talent agency Horipro. Early life and studies Suzuki became interested in learning English after a visit to an uncle, who was living in Los Angeles when he was in Elementary school. He and his br ...

as Yasuyuki Inoue *Takafumi Ikeda *Ōshirō Maeda *Midoriko Kimura *

Kirin Kiki was a Japanese actress for Japanese cinema and television. Biography Kiki was born on January 15, 1943, in Kanda, Tokyo. Her father was a master of the ''biwa'' lute and a former police officer. Her mother owned a cafe in Jinbōchō, Tokyo an ...

as Fumiyo Kikuchi *

Jun Fubuki is a Japanese actress. Career Jun Fubuki received a Japanese Academy Award Best Supporting Actress nomination for her role in '' Muno no Hito'', and won at the Hochi Film Awards. This role also won Fubuki the "Best Actress" award at the Yokoha ...

as Sachiko Ninomiya, a cafe owner * Lily Franky as Sen-ichi Fukuda * Shinichi Tsutsumi as Kazuya Shiina, a married doctor who is having an affair with Sachi * Shinobu Otake as Miyako Sasaki, the mother of Sachi, Yoshino and Chika

Production

The film was produced by

Fuji Television JOCX-DTV (channel 8), branded as or , is a Japanese television station that serves the Kantō region as the flagship (broadcasting), flagship station of the Fuji News Network (FNN) and the Fuji Network System (FNS). The station is owned-and- ...

Shogakukan is a Japanese publisher of comics, magazines, light novels, dictionaries, literature, non-fiction, home media, and other media in Japan. Shogakukan founded Shueisha, which also founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but ...

Toho is a Japanese entertainment company that primarily engages in producing and distributing films and exhibiting stage plays. It is headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Osaka-based Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. ...

and Gaga Corporation.

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as the ...

began in July 2014.

Release

The film premiered at the

. The film was released in Japan on June 13, 2015. It premiered as part of the

BFI London Film Festival The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival held in London, England, in collaboration with the British Film Institute. Founded in 1957, the festival runs for two weeks every October. In 2016, the BFI estimated that around 240 fe ...

on October 14, 2015. It was released in South Korea in 2016.

Box office

The film has grossed in Japan.

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

reports a approval rating for ''Our Little Sister'', based on critics, with an average score of . The website's critical consensus reads: "Our Little Sister uses the story of one fractured family to offer universal -- and deeply moving -- observations on the human condition." The film also holds a 75/100 average rating on

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, based on 31 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Steven Rea of ''

The Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', often referred to simply as ''The Inquirer'', is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded on June 1, 1829, ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is the third-longest continuously operating da ...

'' gave it a full four stars and said that "this is the kind of movie that will leave you feeling restored, maybe a little misty-eyed as well". Calvin Wilson of ''

St. Louis Post-Dispatch The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' is a regional newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, serving the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is the largest daily newspaper in the metropolitan area by circulation, surpassing the '' Belleville News-Democra ...

'' referred to it as "a beautiful drama with comedic undertones about the tension between the comforts of family life and the vast possibilities beyond it. ..an insightful film that bears comparison to the work of British directors

Mike Leigh Mike Leigh (born 20 February 1943) is an English screenwriter, producer, director and former actor with a film, theatre, and television career spanning more than 60 years. His accolades include prizes at the Cannes Film Festival, the Berlin In ...

and

Ken Loach Kenneth Charles Loach (born 17 June 1936) is a retiredhttps://variety.com/2024/film/global/ken-loach-retirement-the-old-oak-jonathan-glazer-oscars-speech-1235956589/ English filmmaker. His socially critical directing style and socialist views ar ...

A. O. Scott Anthony Oliver Scott (born July 10, 1966) is an American journalist and cultural critic, known for his film and literary criticism. After starting his career at ''The New York Review of Books'', '' Variety'', and ''Slate'', he began writing film ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' praised the film's plot: "Seeming to wander through small incidents and mundane busyness, it acquires momentum and dramatic weight through a brilliant kind of narrative stealth." He said the film "goes down as easily as a sip of the plum wine the sisters brew and yet leaves the viewer both sated and intoxicated." Kenji Fujishima of ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first Alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, ...

'' found the film less powerful than Kore-eda's ''Still Walking'' (2008) and ''Like Father, Like Son'' (2013), writing that the film has "an emotional reticence that at times verges on too subtle for its own good. ..moments of bitterness and anguish don’t quite have the gut-punch impact they ought to have." Still, Fujishima commended the acting and also lauded one scene as showing "the laudable humanity at the heart of Kore-eda’s patient, warmhearted worldview". It was Christian Blauvelt's choice in IndieWire's 2018 list of the best Japanese films of the 21st century, with Blauvelt writing that "Kore-eda doesn’t delve into the histrionics usually involved with depictions of “broken families” in American films – these young women know they have to make do, get on with life, and leave the self-pity behind."

Accolades

''Our Little Sister'' received the most nominations (12) at the 39th Japan Academy Prize, winning four of them including Picture of the Year and Director of the Year. The four actresses who portrayed the sisters were all awarded or nominated for the acting awards (

was nominated for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role,

and Kaho were nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Leading Role and

won Newcomer of the Year). The film also won Audience Award at

San Sebastián International Film Festival The San Sebastián International Film Festival ( SSIFF; , ) is an annual FIAPF A category film festival held in the Spain, Spanish city of Donostia, Donostia-San Sebastián in September, in the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Countr ...