DIRECTOR

Kore-eda Hirokazu “Shoplifters”

CAST

Fukuyama Masaharu "The Third Murder"
Ono Machiko "Being Good"
Maki Yoko "After the Storm"
Lily Franky "Shoplifters"

CREW

Director, Writer, and Editor: Kore-eda Hirokazu "Shoplifters"
Director oh Photography: Takimoto Mikiya “Our Little Sister”
Production Designer: Mitsumatsu Keiko “Shoplifters”


#koreeda

Film Festivals & Awards

Cannes FF 2013 - won Jury Prize / Special Mention of Ecumenical Jury
San Sebastian IFF 2013 - won Audience Award
Vancouver IFF 2013 - won Audience Award
Sao Paulo IFF 2013 - won Audience Award
Asia Pacific Screen Award - nominated for Best Film / Best Director
Asia Pacific Film Festival - won Best Film / Best Director
Munich IFF 2013
Karlovy Vary IFF 2013
Toronto IFF 2013
New York FF 2013
Busan IFF 2013
BFI London IFF 2013

Duration/Release

121 min./ 2013 / Japan / Color / DCP / 5.1ch

Synopsis

Ryota has earned everything he has by his hard work, and believes nothing can stop him from pursuing his perfect life and living as a winner. Then one day, he and his wife, Midori, get an unexpected phone call from the hospital. Their 6-year-old son, Keita, is not their son - the hospital gave them the wrong baby.
Ryota is forced to make a life-changing decision, to choose between “nature” and “nurture.” In the meanwhile, seeing Midori’s devotion to Keita even after learning his origin, and communicating with the rough yet caring family who raised his blood son for the last six years, Ryota also starts to question himself: has he really been a “father” all these years…
The moving story of a man who finally faces himself when he encounters an unexpected wall for the first time in his life.

Introduction

Would you choose your natural son, or the son you believed was yours after spending 6 years together? Kore-eda Hirokazu, the globally acclaimed director of “Nobody Knows” (2004), “Still Walking” (2008) and “I Wish” (2011), returns to the big screen with another family - a family thrown into torment after a phone call from the hospital where the son was born…

Working for the first time with leading Japanese singer and actor Fukuyama Masaharu, Kore-eda beautifully orchestrates Ono Machiko, Kiki Kilin and many more acclaimed performers alongside child actors whom the director cast after countless auditions, as in his previous films.