A very wise, intelligent and touching tale, set in in a poor district of Tokyo, of what it means to be a family even when blood may not be the connection that binds. The family here consists of a grandma, a husband and wife, and a daughter and son, with the addition of an abused young girl from the neighbourhood who the family takes in. Father and son shoplift for a living — hence the title — but this story is not really about their vocation; the focus of director Hirokazu Kore-eda is on what binds people together, especially when the people in question are ignored by society. The joy of the film is in the slow accumulation of details about these fascinating characters. (Subtitles.)
