Our Little Sister

[projekktor id=’24817′]

Directed by Hirokazu Koreeda, Our Little Sister is a Japanese drama adapted from the manga series “Umimachi Diary” by Akimi Yoshida. The film premiered at last year’s Cannes Film Festival where it competed for the Palme D’Or.

Three twenty-something sisters – Sachi, Yoshino and Chika – live together in a large old house in the seaside town of Kamakura. When they learn of their estranged father’s death, they decide to travel to the countryside for his funeral. There they meet their shy teenage half-sister Suzu for the first time and, bonding quickly, invite her to live with them. Suzu eagerly agrees, and begins a new life with her older sisters. Amidst the many and varied colors of Kamakura’s four seasons, the four sisters cause each other emotional anguish, and support each other through life’s trials, developing a very special bond in the process.

On adapting the source material Koreeda says, “At first I thought I would just rearrange the order of the scenes. But I gradually changed my mind and decided to write a screenplay that included scenes not in the graphic novel. After wondering how I would create something to fit the limits of a two-hour running time without losing the perspective of the original, I thought it would be better to limit the locations and characters, and add episodes instead.”

Our Little Sister is rated PG.