Our Little Sister: A Life Mosaic of Sweet Brotherhood

Hirokazu Kore-eda is known through many films that often raise the theme of dysfunctional family life, such as “Shoplifters” (2018). Several years before, he had made a sweet work about the lives of four brothers who lived under the same roof without the presence of a parent figure.

In “Our Little Sister” (2015), Kore-eda records the daily life of four brothers who live in an old house left by their late grandmother. This story is based on a manga by Akima with the original title "Umimachi Diary".

“Our Little Sister” is a film that has minimal conflict, is fun, tends to be slow, but actually has the strength of the calm it presents. This film can prove that an implied conflict can really play a big role in building a story that touches the heart.

The film begins with a sad news about the death of a father of three siblings, Sachi (Haruka Ayase) a nurse with a calm personality but always keeps a big secret, Yoshino (Masami Nagasawa) a bank employee who is busy with love problems and his love for beer, and Chika (Kaho) is a cheerful person who works at a sports equipment store.

After attending a funeral that was held far from where they lived, the three immediately fell in love with a teenage boy who had a resemblance to them, Suzu (Suzu Hirose) The little sister born to a woman who had snatched a father from their lives.

Sachi saw the sincerity in Suzu's grieving eyes, they lost the same father figure, but Suzu seemed to be carrying a heavier burden and got a deeper wound. Suzu lives with her father's new wife who seems displeased with his presence.

In the end, Sachi, Yoshino, and Chika invite Suzu to live together, placing Suzu in a new family with older siblings she just met. Suzu gets a new life and warm affection from her three siblings.

“Our Little Sister” frames the lives of four brothers who live an ordinary daily life in a simple old house. In the first half of the film, the audience is presented with a new chapter in Suzu's life, starting from getting a private room, going to school in a new place, eating together with family, playing soccer, to getting to know friends who have the same interests.

The audience will feel warm with the interaction of the four sisters who share food, fight over clothes, briefly disagree, and the next day go back to their days without any significant problems. This film shows family life without big drama but is able to capture the reality of family habits in general.

Although the focus of this film is on the figure of Suzu, a beautiful little sister who holds many big secrets in her life. However, it does not directly make the other three main characters minor.

Kore-eda made the admiration of Suzu's brothers for her little sister become a big stage for the impeccable sincerity of the family, her three sisters still love Suzu with all their heart, and maturely realize that the departure of her father from their lives is the fault of the adults not the children, including Suzu.

Although it seems to be going slowly, actually “Our Little Sister” wraps up the conflict very neatly and charmingly. How in the end the story lived by their father collided with the same destiny that was lived by Sachi.

Sachi who looks cold, full of affection for his three younger siblings, turns out to be keeping a big secret. Viewers will be brought into Sachi's feelings, and understand that her sincerity towards Suzu was born from her own life story.

How these four brothers tie their kinship tightly can be a subject of reflection for the audience, that every individual in a family must have their own problems. And one of the main tasks as people who belong to each other is to accept each other's shortcomings.

At least “Our Little Sister” is able to record the conflicts between siblings that are usually present because of trivial matters, and don't need to be resolved. They will get better on their own over time, without any long-lasting hurt feelings.

This film can be a healing alternative, a family drama with minimal conflict but has a deep meaning about how to treat those closest to you with kindness and sincerity.