The Acclaimed Director of ‘Shoplifters’ and ‘Monster’ Once Made a Moving Drama Surrounding the Theme of Sisterhood

There’s a unique kind of magic in Hirokazu Kore-eda’s films—the sort that whispers rather than shouts. The acclaimed director of Monsteris the master of persuading his audience to feel like an unspoken observer within the lives of his characters—the auteur's cinematic signature that led him to win the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival for 2018's Shoplifters. In 2015's Our Little Sister, otherwise known as Umimachi Diary, Kore-eda tells one of his most tender yet simple stories of his filmography, channelling "Ozu's still-modern style of drama."