Author Topic: Shoplifters  (Read 959 times)

fredf7

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Shoplifters
« on: December 29, 2018, 01:41:36 PM »
Help!  I didn’t even get the basics here. In the hovel where most of the action takes place, there  was a couple that appeared to be married (although I guess they weren’t).  There was a grandma— whose grandma was she?  There was a young lady in (I guess) her 20s.  She was a sex- worker. Was she the granddaughter?  Was she related to the wife in the husband-wife combo? At one point, the grandma leaves her hovel  to see a youngish married couple who give her money.  I believe this young couple was connected to the grandma’s deceased husband?  No?  Yes?  Why were they paying the grandma? Was the younger woman ( the sex worker) in the hovel connected to this couple?  Was she their daughter? Thx for any info.

valmz

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Re: Shoplifters
« Reply #1 on: January 16, 2019, 04:12:02 PM »
None of the things above are clear for the great majority of the film, and the fact that they don't matter is a key element of the film: How important are blood relations vs. true compassion and love? The answer is... not, in each lived life.

This is what I get:

The mother figure killed her husband and was not prosecuted due to self defense, which is revealed in a discussion with the prosecutor in the film.
The father figure in the film was somehow involved in the killing. He spent time in prison, though it is not clear whether it was related to this crime or not. It is not clear whether they were lovers at the time.
The grandmother figure is not related to either, but welcomes the two into her home as family despite no blood ties, it seems.
The other adult female seems to be the granddaughter of the grandmother figure's ex husband, but with no blood relation to the grandmother figure.
The male child was abducted from a car in the parking lot of a pachinko parlor (a gambling establishment like the one the grandmother figure is shown at). The father doesn't convincingly answer the male child's question as to whether he was abducted merely as part of a car robbery or purely out of charity.
The female child's story is shown in its entirety.

fredf7

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Re: Shoplifters
« Reply #2 on: February 10, 2019, 12:50:27 PM »
Thanks, Valmz.  Very helpful. 

 

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