Our Little Sister

Based on Akimi Yoshida's popular graphic novel series Umimachi Diary (launched in 2007), Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda's Our Little Sister is a sweetly wistful episodic melodrama. When the three twentysomething Koda sisters—Sachi, Yoshino, and Chika—travel north to Yamagata for the funeral of their estranged father, they discover that they have a teenage half-sister named Suzu (Suzu Hirose) from his second marriage. Impulsively, Sachi (Haruka Ayase) invites shy, soccer-loving Suzu to come live with them in their late grandmother's dilapidated family house in Kamakura, a small seaside town located south of Tokyo. Ever since their mother (Shinobu Ohtake) deserted them, dutiful Sachi has been the matriarch; a dedicated nurse, she's having an affair with a married pediatrician at the local hospital. The middle sister, Yoshino (Masami Nagasawa), is a hard-partying bank clerk, and kooky, amiable Chika (Kaho) works in a sporting-goods store, flirting with a mountaineering co-worker who lost six toes climbing Mt. Everest. In addition to the sisters' romantic angst, there are many culinary interludes, and as the seasons pass over the course of a year, the sisters bond while coping with a cantankerous great-aunt, marveling at a fireworks display, and relishing the traditional pink cherry blossoms. A warm if also somewhat slight tale, this is a strong optional purchase. (S. Granger)