Taking Time: Family and Forgiveness in Hirokazu Koreeda's Our Little Sister

In Our Little Sister, renowned Japanese auteur Hirokazu Koreeda once again homes in on the dynamics and difficulties that characterise the family in modern Japan. This time, though, writes Tara Judah, the film's main driver isn't a 'conflict' so much as an impetus to gradually make room – for love, for joy, for reparation – a process that matches the slow unfolding of the story.

Additional keywords: siblings, Akimi Yoshida, Umimachi Diary, adaptation, world cinema, death, grief, gender.