Our Little Sister

Our Little Sister (Umimachi Diary, 2015) is Hirokazu Kore-eda's gentle family drama, available to watch online on iFILM. Three grown sisters in the seaside town of Kamakura travel to the funeral of the father who walked out on them years earlier.

At the service they meet Suzu, their thirteen-year-old half-sister, now alone after losing both her mother and father. The eldest sister, Sachi, makes a quiet offer: come live with us in the old family house. Four sisters under one roof, and the film simply watches them live — brewing homemade plum wine, walking under the cherry blossoms, bickering, falling in love for the first time, nursing old wounds about their parents. Haruka Ayase, Masami Nagasawa, Kaho and newcomer Suzu Hirose play the four.

Kore-eda adapted Akimi Yoshida's manga, and his signature is all over it: no villains, no big twists, just people and the slow passage of seasons. The film competed in the main competition at Cannes. Pick it for an evening when you want warmth and calm instead of plot. Stream Our Little Sister (2015) online on iFILM.