Our Little Sister – touching family drama

This utterly enchanting tale of female family bonds (mothers, daughters, sisters) finds three twentysomething siblings travelling to the funeral of their estranged father, and meeting their 14-year-old half-sister for the first time. While Sachi, Yoshino and Chika live together with their shared memories, young Suzu seems all alone, until her new-found family invite her to come and live with them in Kamakura. “She may be your sister, but she’s also the daughter of the woman who destroyed your family,” warns a wary auntie. But despite the melancholic old wounds which her presence reopens, Suzu proves an entirely positive presence in this lovely, generous, and touching adaptation of Akimi Yoshida’s graphic novel Umimachi Diary. Filmed in mid- and long shots, which emphasise group framings over isolated close-ups, Our Little Sister may seem at first glance to be a slighter work than director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s recent works I Wish or Like Father, Like Son. But as its magical spell takes hold, so the film’s true depths become apparent, each character dealing in their own way with the departure of a parent, and issues of love, loyalty and loss. A soundtrack of simple piano motifs with plaintive woodwind and strings emphasises the domestic milieu (the preparation and consumption of food is a key theme) and captures the ecstatic sunshine of a bicycle ride through a tunnel of pink cherry blossoms.