Part of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s mission is to foster greater understanding through world cinema. This year 72 Foreign Language films were submitted for Golden Globes consideration. Here is an overview of one of them.

Our Little Sister is the story of three sisters and, as an unexpected addition; a 15-year old half-sister who comes to live with them after their father passes away.

It is a kind and heartwarming portrayal of four sisters who try to accept what life has brought them and open up to embrace what they already have. Through the every day lives of the four sisters who work hard and seek to advance, and their relationship with the people around them, the director, Hirokazu Koreeda, quietly and vividly shows us what they are going through. His portrayal of the Japanese way of life and cultural background is reminiscent of Ozu Yasujiro’s work.

The three sisters, Sachi (29), Yoshino (25), and Chika (21), live together in an old large house in the city of Kamakura which they inherited from their grandmother. The house itself can be considered as a fifth character in the film. It is filled with childhood memories of their grandmother raising them after both parents left, it protects them from the outside world, but it also prevents them from going out into the real world on their own.

When their father, absent from their lives for 15 years, passes away, they travel to his hometown to attend the funeral. That’s when they meet their half sister, Suzu, for the first time. Since both her birth parents have passed away, Suzu is left with her stepmother. Sachi senses right away Suzu is not happy with her living situation and on a whim she offers Suzu to come and live with them. The newly acquainted half sister is a shy but strong willed student who accepts their offer and moves to Kamakura, despite her own mother causing the divorce of her half sisters’ parents.

In Japan, divorce often leaves the children with one parent and the other parent disappearing out of their lives. Though things are changing, evenly shared custody is rarely practiced in Japan. Koreeda often chooses subjects relatable to parents: child/parent relationships, love, and abandonment. He takes these topics and views them with warm but profoundly observant eyes.

Yukiko Nakajima