Constructing the Tragic Theme in Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Shoplifters”

In “Une Affaire de Famille” Hirokazu Kore-eda depicts a “family” living at the bottom of Japanese society and the series of events triggered by the adoption of a little girl named Yori. The harsh reality filled with deception, lies, and helplessness contrasts sharply with the family illusion constructed by the main characters, who have no blood relations, to cover up the reality, forming the most distinct and tense dramatic conflict in the film. The realistic narration and implicit treatment of the difficult maintenance and eventual collapse of the illusion are not only a sharp manifestation of the film’s social critical edge but also enhance the film’s tragic color. Based on this, we will take the analysis of film form language as the foundation and try to use Nietzsche’s theory of tragedy to explore the construction of the film’s tragic theme.