'Shoplifters' depicts a collective of social outcasts living in cramped quarters on the fringes of Tokyo, who survive by engaging in casual labor, petty crime and sex work. One cold night they take in the abused child of a neighboring couple, and subsequently adopt her into their merry band.
After this addition, the gang starts to consider itself a real family. Held together by an elderly matriarch, they live their outsider lifestyle in unrealistic harmony without much character development to compensate for the pedestrian narrative flow. The clan survives a major upset, but when a shoplifting caper goes wrong, the house of cards comes tumbling down. Secrets from previous lives are revealed, and the group's connecting threads become fragile as loyalties are stretched by altered circumstances.
'Shoplifters' has won some prestigious awards and got nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar, but it doesn't live up to its big reputation. Although it has the look of social realism, the movie is actually far closer to a fairy tale. At the end of the day it's fairly obvious why the Academy voters preferred 'Roma'.
After this addition, the gang starts to consider itself a real family. Held together by an elderly matriarch, they live their outsider lifestyle in unrealistic harmony without much character development to compensate for the pedestrian narrative flow. The clan survives a major upset, but when a shoplifting caper goes wrong, the house of cards comes tumbling down. Secrets from previous lives are revealed, and the group's connecting threads become fragile as loyalties are stretched by altered circumstances.
'Shoplifters' has won some prestigious awards and got nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar, but it doesn't live up to its big reputation. Although it has the look of social realism, the movie is actually far closer to a fairy tale. At the end of the day it's fairly obvious why the Academy voters preferred 'Roma'.