Reflections on 'Shoplifters' | What was Yuri looking at from the apartment complex fence in the final scene? [Teacher, what was that?]

The meaning of 'that scene' that stayed with me long after watching the movie. 'Cinema Teacher' (55), a man who has seen every movie, and 'Tok' (19), a university student from the streaming generation, dig deep into a single question.

🎤 Tok: Teacher. The final scene where Yuri is looking outside through the apartment complex fence—the one you held back on answering at the end of the film. How do you interpret that, in the end?

🎬 Cinema Teacher: Let's talk about that today. That scene is one that many people can't get out of their heads after watching.

🎤 Tok: It really doesn't leave me. She's holding onto the railing, staring intently at the other side. She doesn't make a sound. You can't really read her expression either. And yet, it leaves such a huge impression.

🎬 Cinema Teacher: Director Hirokazu Kore-eda is an artist who always leaves a 'question for the audience' in his final shots. The ending of 'Nobody Knows' was like that. 'Like Father, Like Son' is the same. And the ending of 'Shoplifters' concludes with the scene of Yuri looking outside through the apartment complex fence.

🎤 Tok: ...Who was she looking at?

🎬 Cinema Teacher: There are multiple ways to read it. Before I tell you my interpretation, let's organize the three common ones.

🎤 Tok: Oh, that's thorough.

🎬 Cinema Teacher: The first is the reading that she is 'waiting for someone to come and pick her up.' Whether it's Osamu, Nobuyo, or perhaps Shota—Yuri is unconsciously waiting for someone who spent time in that house to come back and take her away again. This is the most straightforward reading.

🎤 Tok: That's heartbreaking...

🎬 Cinema Teacher: The second is the reading that she 'no longer expects anything.' The domestic violence from her real mother, being taken into protective custody by the police, and then being returned to the same house—even before leaving that house, Yuri had already learned to look at 'a place that is not here.' The reading is that looking outside through the fence isn't about waiting for someone in reality, but that it has become a habit of staring at a place that is not here.

🎤 Tok: ...That's also heartbreaking.

🎬 Cinema Teacher: The third is the reading of 'something that Yuri herself cannot yet put into words.' That girl is only around five years old. She doesn't even know what she is waiting for herself. But she is waiting for something. The audience has no choice but to receive that 'something that cannot be put into words' from Yuri's back.

🎤 Tok: ...Teacher, which one is the truth?

🎬 Cinema Teacher: My reading is the fourth one.

🎤 Tok: Wait, there are four?

🎬 Cinema Teacher: I interpret that scene as 'the moment Yuri is reliving her time with the 'Shoplifters' family within her own memories.'.

🎤 Tok: ...What do you mean by that?

🎬 Cinema Teacher: Think about it. The composition of her looking through the apartment complex fence is a space continuous with the place where Yuri was sitting, shivering in the winter, at the beginning of the movie.

🎤 Tok: ...Ah. That's the scene from when Osamu and Shota first picked her up.

🎬 Cinema Teacher: That's right. The film closes as a circle. Yuri, who was 'picked up' from a corner of the apartment complex at the beginning, stands in front of the same fence at the end. However, the Yuri who sat there at the start and the Yuri looking out through the fence at the end are different people.

🎤 Tok: ...Different people?

🎬 Cinema Teacher: Because in between, there were the days spent in that house. They shared croquettes, Hatsue brushed her hair, and they held hands and jumped at the water's edge. Yuri, who holds those memories, can no longer return to the 'Yuri before she was picked up'.

🎤 Tok: ...Ah.

🎬 Cinema Teacher: Yuri, looking out through that fence, is likely seeing the memories of that house without even realizing it herself. She isn't looking at 'somewhere other than here,' but at 'that summer at the water's edge'.

🎤 Tok: ...Teacher, that's painful.

🎬 Cinema Teacher: It is painful. But Hirokazu Kore-eda does not offer Yuri salvation. At the same time, he does not offer despair. He simply conveys to the audience that the time Yuri spent with 'that family' definitely remains within her.

🎤 Tok: ...So, it's up to the audience to decide what she was looking at, right?

🎬 Cinema Teacher: Exactly. That final cut is a scene where the audience themselves are tested on 'what they want to see in Yuri'. Some expect someone to come and pick her up. Some expect nothing at all. Some believe she is holding onto the time she spent with that family. — Every interpretation reflects the audience's own answer to 'what is family'.

🎤 Tok: ...But Teacher, this is just your interpretation, isn't it? Aren't there other ways to see it?

🎬 Cinema Teacher: Of course. The three interpretations I mentioned earlier each have deep foundations. Those who read it as 'waiting to be picked up' have received the child's pure hope from the film. Those who read it as 'expecting nothing anymore' have read the child's survival strategy from the film. Those who read it as 'something that cannot be put into words' have accepted the very margins of Kore-eda's direction. — None of them are wrong.

🎤 Tok: ...I want to watch it again.

🎬 Cinema Teacher: You should do that. Between the first and second viewing, what is reflected in Yuri's eyes will change. That is the correct way to enjoy this film. Whatever you felt when you saw that final cut, that is the correct answer for you.

👉 Click here for a comedy routine that digs deeper into this film:

Analysis of 'Shoplifters' | Why couldn't they 'end it' — The ethics of 'ending it'