Strong Bonds of a Poor Family
Shoplifters (2018) and Social Equality
by Zekayi Kılıç
Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Shoplifters is a movie that gives us the life of a low-class Japanese family that tries to survive poverty both by working in normal jobs but also shoplifting too. With the involvement of a new member, little girl Yuri, it becomes clear that no one in this family is related by blood. Grandma, Aunt Aki, little boy Sota, mother, and father are all lonely strangers, and both kids are kidnapped. They try to survive poverty by forming a family and emotionally supporting one another by communicating their needs.
The movie juxtaposes the poverty and the emotional ‘bonding’ of the lower-class family in Japan and shows how they try to help each other to survive. The financial situation of the family evokes concern as the movie shows that little kids cannot provide for themselves, old people need the support of the government or a family, and without money, they cannot have shelter or food. However, poverty in the characters’ lives brings lots of scenes filled with misery but Shoplifters portrays the family members’ intention to find bonding and love more than their suffering. Their poverty can be heartbreaking for the audience, yet it is usual for them. Instead of delving into the dark waters of poverty and hunger, the director shows how people that suffer from poverty can create happy personal and family relationships by being supportive of each other. The family of the Shoplifters always tries to create warm moments such as going to the sea at a distant place and swimming together.
It is explained in the movie that they kidnapped both Yuri and Sota. However, morally questionable points in the movie such as kidnapping kids, teaching them shoplifting, or taking the old woman’s pension long after she dies are left without satisfying justifications to them. Instead of providing answers to these problems, the movie tries to focus on the ways these family members survive poverty. Rather than demonizing the parents for kidnapping and teaching Yuri to shoplift, by showing her physically abusive biological family, the movie shows the injustices she faces as a kid. Still, the movie does not focus on any villainous character such as Yuri’s family, and there isn’t a human antagonist in Shoplifters. Characters in the movie fight against problems such as the government’s inadequate social and security care for children, and lack of financial support for the elderly, and these all imply poverty and its root causes as the main villain of the movie.
In conclusion, the movie shows that in today’s Japan money is a certain item in human life that can limit the peace in an individual’s life. However, the portrayal of those who suffer from poverty as genuine humans that want to create a family, the movie makes the audience see the heartbreaking point of the movie. Poverty causes characters to get separated from each other, and their ‘bond’ is forever destroyed because they could not provide for each other. Shoplifters shows us that poverty hinders individuals from benefitting from basic human rights and causes huge inequalities among people of all ages.
