One of contemporary filmmaking's most distinctive voices, Kore-eda Hirokazu is renowned for his graceful and humanistic portraits of modern-day family life. From Maborosi (1995) and Nobody Knows (2004) to the Palme d'Or-winning Shoplifters (2018) and Monster (2023), Kore-eda's films are marked by a restrained, contemplative style that reveal the extraordinary within the everyday. Covering all sixteen feature films, this study provides a nuanced overview of Kore-eda's filmmaking across three decades.
Through close readings of key works including After Life (1998), Still Walking (2008), After the Storm (2016) and Broker (2022), Jacoby shows how Kore-eda reshapes a cinematic tradition associated with Yasujiro Ozu to reflect the uncertainties of modern Japan. Attuned to questions of memory, loss and belonging, Kore-eda's cinema offers a quietly radical vision of family, where care and choice matter as much as blood.