Introduction: The wound can only be healed when it is actually seen.
"Thief Family" is a film shot by Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda in 2018, the film tells the story of a "family" that is not related by blood but lives together for various reasons, the mother is a washer, the father is a temporary worker at the construction site, often takes his son Shota to the supermarket to steal daily necessities, the sister Yaki is a practitioner in the pornography industry, the family's main source of livelihood is grandma's meager pension, the original unstable life, because of the adoption of a poor little girl and more difficult. It is in this way that a family that wanders on the edge of poverty and lawlessness gives the little girl the warmth of her home, and what makes them unrelated to each other closely is love.
1. Close-reading of characters and plots
They all say that if you understand Kore-eda's films, you really understand life. It's a story that begins by letting people know that no matter how you write it, it will become a tragedy. I shed tears for their warmth while watching the movie, and calmed down to find the intertwined interests. Everyone is careful to maintain this balance.
Grandma is afraid of loneliness so she takes everyone in; Taji and Nobuyo need a place to live with Grandma's pension so they stay; Agi wants to escape from his original family and covets Grandma's warmth so he stays; Taji and Nobuyo want children so they abduct and raise Shota and Yuri. In this way, six completely unrelated people who were excluded from the margins of society formed a family.
When Yuri was left behind, when Taji taught Shota to accept his sister, when Yuri touched Nobuyo's scars, when Grandma was keenly aware of Akiki's mood changes, when Nobuyoshi told Yuri that the people who loved you would hug you, when Taji imagined himself and Shota getting along like father and son, when Yagi and the guests of the custom shop hugged, when others misunderstood that Nobuyo and Shota were mother and son, when everyone listened to fireworks under the eaves, when Taji fuping Shota's adolescent uneasiness, when everyone jumped high on the beach, when Grandma whispered thank you, countless moments, I was impressed by them.
Shota and Yusato were not sent to school to study but were ttolen by the professor at a young age, when Grandma was away, Taji and Nobuyo loudly discussed that her grandmother changed her tone as soon as she returned, and after Grandma died, she was hastily buried in the yard taji and Nobuyoshi happily counted her inheritance, and after Shota was captured, Taji immediately took everyone to plan to escape.
But human nature is complex, pitiful and sad, and how can it be easily asserted that it is love or profit. It can't be said that it's all their fault, and this society has done too much wrong, and it will only punish others without reflecting on themselves.
The beginning of the film is doomed to the tragic end, and the director has not given the audience any illusions divorced from reality. Where will Yuri, Shota, Agi, Shinshiro, and Osamu Taji each go? And how do you face everything you have escaped? But the director is still benevolent, when all the truth is cruelly spread, Taji still goes to chase the bus, Nobuyo still tells Shota about his parents, Agi still returns to the small room, Shota still silently calls out his father, yuri can also be regarded as a taste of love.
2. It is the "family" concept in Kore-eda's films
"Family" has always been Kore-eda's favorite and best interpretive subject, but this time the family is a little different. As the plot progresses, we find that each "family member" is not related to each other, but lives under one roof because of various entanglements. "Thief" is the identity of each of them, and although the way of stealing is different, the reason is simple - just to survive.
The old house of the "Nail Household" surrounded by apartment buildings is small and messy, but it seems warm because the family is reunited here. Watching them sit around eating instant noodles with coke cakes, and boiling yellow, orange and orange corn in the boiling pot, we as bystanders seem to accept the new family and the "new identity" of each of them: grandma, father, mother, sister, little brother and sister, and the old house has become their paradise. Unfortunately, the "butterfly effect" always leads to unpredictable results. The death of the grandmother and the accidental injury of the little brother caused the family built on the "lie" to collapse in an instant.
"Daddy and Mommy" are passionate murderers who evade want, the sister finds that Grandma "uses" her runaway from home to go to the original family to ask for money, the younger brother wants to find her own family, and the "picked up" sister is sent back to her biological parents by the righteous, even if she is beaten up "at home".
We can't say that it's wrong to expose these "facts," but it's also hard to convince ourselves that breaking up the family is the right choice. In their words, they chose each other over their original family. As Orientals, the cultural background makes us know what a "white lie" is, and willingly or unwillingly, everyone in the "thief family" decides to be honest with each other and say goodbye to each other. The beginning of this family may be based on "falsehood", but in the end, each member has and dedicates the most "sincere" feelings.
epilogue
The world is not black and white, the boundaries of good and evil are ambiguous, but the deep love makes us feel warm in this cold world. The family looked up to "see" the fireworks in the distance, Grandma thanked her silently, Xiangtai finally said the "Daddy" who did not let his father hear, their lives may not be so rich or even decent, but their spiritual world is full, whether the fireworks of that night can be seen or not does not matter at all, because they have the most beautiful fireworks in their hearts for love.