Kore-eda's OUR LITTLE SISTER Comes to UK DVD and Blu-ray

After The Storm, the latest from the great Kore-eda Hirokazu premiered in the Un Certain Regard section of this year’s Cannes Film Festival before going on general release in Japanese cinemas where it can still be found. While looking forward for that film to travel abroad, UK fans can make do with the release of his previous effort, Our Little Sister, out today on DVD and Blu-ray.

Haruka Ayase (Ichi, Real), Nagasawa Masami (Wood Job!), and Kaho (Tokyo Girl), star as twenty-something siblings living together in an aged and ever-so-slightly ramshackle house in the coastal town of Kamakura. Award-winning newcomer Hirose Suzu plays the little sister of the title, who comes moves in after the death of her father, a man who abandoned the other girls years earlier when he took up with Suzu’s mother.

If you think this would lead to shocking revelations, bitter fights, and tearful reunions, you’d be wrong. Kore-eda’s work is as subtle as it is sublime and he has never been one for shallow melodrama. As our own Ard said in his review: “What puzzle pieces there are gently slide together, instead of them closing with sudden harsh clicks. But still there is emotional impact, still you catch a glimpse of just how raw each exposed nerve was.”

Our Little Sister is another triumph from arguably Japan’s greatest working filmmaking. Like the ever-present waves lapping at the shore of the little beach town, these woman let the time they spend in each others company wash away the sins of the father (and mothers). Sweet and sensitive without ever being saccharine, Our Little Sister is an absolute joy.