SHOPLIFTERS

The ghosts of Dickens, De Sica and Ozu hover over every frame of Hirokazu Koreeda's magnificent film "Shoplifters". This cross between "Oliver Twist" and "Shoeshine" but filmed in the style of Ozu's "Ohayo" is about a family of thieves in contemporary Tokyo who find a little, five-year-old girl abandoned by her abusive parents, take her in, shower her with affection and teach her to steal. They may be amoral and they may be lawbreakers but sometimes we find goodness in the strangest of places and in the least likely of people. What's worse, the film asks; stealing food and clothes or 'rescuing' a child, a crime society and the world at large views as the greater theft.

If the style of the film is neo-realist, the concept is purely humanist and, for once, Koreeda comes across as a Japanese Ken Loach and, like Loach, he draws extraordinarily naturalistic performances from his entire cast, (Miyu Sasuki, the little girl playing Yuri, is absolutely perfect), and there are great moments here, as good as any in recent cinema. Life, you see, is not black and white but full of all the colours of the rainbow if you just know where to look. Koreeda knows exactly where to look and this triumphant, beautiful and moving film is proof of that.