Kore-eda’s dra­ma tells the sto­ry of a Japanese fami­ly living in poor con­di­ti­ons on the out­skirts of Tokyo and sup­ple­men­ting their meager inco­me with pet­ty theft. When one day they find a negle­c­ted litt­le girl on a bal­c­o­ny in the neigh­bor­hood, they unce­re­mo­nious­ly take her not only with them, but also into their fami­ly bonds. The film beg­ins as a quiet milieu stu­dy, but later chan­ges tone and, in dra­ma­tic sce­nes, calls into ques­ti­on the fami­ly rela­ti­onships that were initi­al­ly cha­rac­te­ri­zed as loving. (HM)