OVERLAY REPORT

In Hirokazu Kore-eda's *Shoplifters*, the central secret is that the "Shibata" family is not related by blood; they are a group of marginalized individuals who have "shoplifted" their roles as family members to escape past traumas or legal issues. Here are the specific secrets kept by the main characters: ### 1. Osamu and Nobuyo (The "Parents") * **The Murder and Burial:** The biggest secret held by the couple is that they killed Nobuyo's former husband. Nobuyo was in an abusive relationship, and Osamu intervened to protect her. They killed the man in self-defense, but instead of reporting it, they buried his body under the floorboards of a previous residence. * **Nobuyo's Employment History:** Nobuyo works at an industrial laundry facility, but she hides the fact that she is a fugitive of sorts, living under a cloud of her past crime. * **Their Relationship:** They are not legally married. Their bond is built on mutual survival and the shared secret of the killing. ### 2. Hatsue (The "Grandmother") * **Pension Fraud:** Hatsue is the only one with a legal claim to the house, which belonged to her deceased husband. She keeps the secret that she is receiving a monthly pension, which is the primary legal income for the household. * **The "Hush Money":** Hatsue regularly visits the son of her ex-husband (from his second marriage). She accepts money from him, ostensibly as a gesture of guilt for his father leaving her. However, she keeps it a secret from the family that she knows Aki (the "sister") is actually this man's daughter. * **The Final Secret:** When Hatsue dies in her sleep, Osamu and Nobuyo keep it a secret from the authorities. They bury her under the house to continue collecting her pension checks, a secret they even keep from the younger children for a time. ### 3. Aki (The "Older Sister") * **Her True Identity:** Aki is not Hatsue's biological granddaughter. She is the daughter of the man Hatsue visits for money. Her biological family believes she is studying abroad in Australia. * **Her Occupation:** She works at a "peep show" / adult club under a pseudonym. She keeps the emotional toll of this work and her connection to her biological family a secret from the Shibatas until the end of the film. ### 4. Shota (The "Son") * **His Origin:** Shota was not born to Osamu and Nobuyo. Osamu "found" him locked in a car in a parking lot when he was a toddler. Instead of calling the police, Osamu took him. Shota grows up believing the lie that he was rescued, but he eventually realizes he was essentially kidnapped. * **His Moral Conflict:** As the film progresses, Shota begins to keep his burgeoning guilt a secret. He starts to realize that shoplifting is wrong, and he intentionally gets caught to "save" Yuri (the younger sister) and expose the family's secrets. ### 5. Yuri / Rin (The "Youngest Daughter") * **The Kidnapping:** Yuri is a young girl the family finds shivering on a balcony, showing signs of physical abuse. They "adopt" her, but in the eyes of the law, they have kidnapped her. * **Her Real Name:** The family renames her Lin to hide her identity from the police. They burn her old clothes to destroy evidence of her previous life. * **The Abuse:** Yuri keeps the secret of the scars on her arms, which are evidence of the horrific treatment she received from her biological parents—a secret the Shibatas recognize because they share similar "scars" (both literal and metaphorical). ### The Shared Secret The ultimate secret they all keep is the **nature of their bond.** They pretend to be a traditional family to the outside world—to neighbors, employers, and shopkeepers—to maintain a fragile bubble of happiness. The film's climax occurs when these secrets are systematically unraveled by the police, revealing that their "theft" of a family life was a desperate response to being discarded by society.