Thief Family: When we decided to say goodbye to the present unbearable

Kore-eda's films have a utopian feel, but tell a real story. For example, in "Nobody Knows", four siblings of a single-parent family are abandoned by their mothers and live with each other, inspired by the "West Sugamo abandoned baby incident" in Tokyo in 1988, and "Thief Family" is inspired by a social news reporting on the thief family.

The Shibata family, who make a living by stealing, can be described as living in a lot of holes. Daily necessities, clothes, snacks, etc., including shampoo, are all obtained by stealing, and the most stable income is the grandmother's first branch to take the pension of her deceased ex-husband, and the "sympathy fee" of visiting her ex-husband's son's home regularly.

But even a family of five whose daily life is enough to be depressed will not forget to enjoy the comforts of life. Even when daily necessities are "stolen and not sought", father Ji will not forget to take his son Shota to fish and steal fishing gear; even if he has just lost his job, his mother Shinyo will not waste the rare time of the two.

The family that lives a peaceful life by stealing is changed by Ling's joining. If Xiang Tai awakens the heart of a father, then Ling, who has been abused by her biological parents, arouses the illusion that Shindai wants to be a mother, and even goes so far as to let Ling live with her all the time, abandoning her job and intimidating colleagues who know secrets.

The weak Ling is like light, shining into the Shibata family through thousands of sores and holes, not only illuminating the warmth of the Shibata family that is not a family than the family, but also making the downfall hidden under the warmth and comfort appear. The family neatly went on vacation by the sea, admired the fireworks of the fireworks through the narrow and closed courtyard, and bought new clothes that were no longer a prelude to being beaten... All the warmth with the "family" heals Ling's fear of family and naturally learns to become a thief.

The appearance of the younger sister Ling makes Xiangtai no longer an old man who is fully cared for by his family, but has become a brother. The change in identity gave him the opportunity to rethink his life.

He Ling went to the shop to steal something and was caught, and the kind shopkeeper did not punish them, but also took out snacks to Shota, and said solemnly: "Don't let her be this (thief) anymore." What he had learned to do since childhood was denied in a very warm way, touching Shota; the unfortunate death of the shopkeeper gave him the idea of changing everything he had.

Because of a "mistake" by Shota, the Shibata family went from "dark" to "bright". The family that once gave each other warmth became the object of public criticism, "Missing Ling" returned to her biological parents under the escort of the police, and Nobuyo was sentenced to prison for all this.

When Shindai no longer believed that "can give birth to a child can become a mother?" The doubts reconciled with the past self who insisted on being a mother, and gave Shota the freedom to choose "home"; although Shota took the initiative to give up his life in the Shibata family, he was his father in his heart; Ling, who returned to his parents, also had the courage to no longer go near his mother and grow up on his own...

When I first watched "Thief Family", I was more impressed about "home". What exactly is a real family? And what does "home" mean to us?

Yaji and Ling, who have not returned home for a long time, are regarded as pearls in the palm of their hands by the Shibata family, but they are a dispensable existence for their biological parents; in order to "rescue the trapped" Xiangtai from the hospital, the thief family is revealed to the world; even if the family is separated, it is not strange that Xiangtai was deliberately arrested...

The closeness and happiness of the Shibata family became an unbearable family through the mouth of the female police officer in front of the adult Yaki, but in front of the underage Shota, the male police officer gave the unbearable family the last decency. Faced with Shota's question that "only children who can't study at home go to school", the male police officer did not expose the lie, but told him that there were many things that could not be learned at home.

Seeing the end, from the growth of the family, I saw the best way to cope with the unbearable life. Don't care about others thinking that they are unbearable, but have the courage to look directly at the unbearable they recognize, and decisively make changes to say goodbye to it.

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