Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda's Shoplifters, a bittersweet fable about a lower-class family, won the top prize of the 71st Cannes Film Festival. [Photo provided to China Daily]

A stylish film-which again taps into Kore-eda's favorite theme: family relations-Shoplifters recounts the story of a lower-class family of five residing in Tokyo. Without enough income, the three generations that live under the same roof survive by shoplifting, but a new addition to the household disrupts their routine.

In an earlier interview with the Chinese media, the 56-year-old director says that the film was inspired by his childhood, when most Japanese families lived together, from grandparents to grandchildren.

Nowadays, however, such living arrangements are rarely seen in Japan, explained Kore-eda.