Kore-eda’s ‘Our Little Sister’ at Laemmle Royal

In Hirokazu Kore-eda’s new film, three sisters get to know their teenage half-sister.

Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Our Little Sister” is now playing at the Laemmle Royal, 11523 Santa Monica Blvd. in West Los Angeles.

The exclusive L.A. engagement expands July 15 to the Playhouse 7 in Pasadena and Town Center 5 in Encino.

Internationally acclaimed for films like “Still Walking,” “Like Father, Like Son,” “Nobody Knows,” “I Wish,” and “After Life,” Kore-eda’s latest is based on the best-selling manga series “Umimachi Diary.”

Three 20-something sisters – Sachi, Yoshino and Chika – live together in a large old house in the seaside town of Kamakura. When they learn of their estranged father’s death, they decide to travel to the countryside for his funeral. There they meet their shy teenage half-sister Suzu for the first time and, bonding quickly, invite her to live with them. Suzu eagerly agrees, and begins a new life with her older sisters.

Kore-eda wrote, “I realized that to focus on and work up the troubled relationships between these human characters was not the right approach for this film. What interests me is not only the beauty of the scenery of Kamakura – or of the four sisters – but also the accepting attitude of this seaside town itself, absorbing and embracing everything. It is the beauty that arises from the realization – not sorrowful but open-hearted – that we are just grains of sand forming a part of the whole, and that the town, and the time there, continue even when we are gone.”

“Our Little Sister” was selected to compete for the Palme d’Or at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival and holds a 93 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. All four actresses who portrayed the sisters (Haruka Ayase, Masami Nagasawa, Kaho, and Suzu Hirose) were awarded or nominated for a Japan Academy Prize.

Showtimes are 10:10 a.m. (weekend only), 1, 4, 7 and 10 p.m. until Thursday, July 14. For more information, call (310) 478-3836 or visit www.laemmle.com.