Description: Based on true events that shocked Japan, this story of abandoned siblings is a "harrowing, tender film" (The New York Times) that "unfolds with leisurely beauty" (LA Weekly). Filmed over a year and featuring a performance by 12-year-old Yagira Yuya that won the Best Actor prize at the 2004 Cannes International Film Festival, this "haunting" (Newsday) tale is "heartbreakingly brilliant" (The Boston Globe). A childlike mother of four sneaks her children into their new apartment as if it were a game. One of the game’s rules is that only Akira, the oldest, can go outside. Their mother leaves, first for a month, then possibly forever. As the money runs out and the utilities are shut off, Akira struggles to take care of his brother and sisters, determined that they stay safe and together.
Amazon.com: Nobody Knows, an extraordinary film from Japanese director Kore-Eda Hirokazu, is a heartbreaking and touching story about how selfish a single mother can be to her four children, and how resilient children can be. Kicked out of several apartments for her large brood, Keiko (Japanese pop star You) sneaks them in to a new one (two inside the suitcases) and goes over the house rules: No loud noises. They must stay hidden inside the apartment all day, every day. Only Akira, the oldest, leaves to do grocery shopping while she works. He also makes dinner while Keiko goes out on dates (implying to her children that she's looking for a rich husband so that they can all live in a big house together).
One day, Keiko (not a villain, but an unsympathetic, helium-voiced child herself) announces she's going away for a few weeks to work. She soon emerges every few months, only to drop off money before taking off again, at one point, for good. Akira forgoes any normal 12-year-old's upbringing (even school) to play mother, father, even Santa Claus to his siblings. There's a trapped feeling in Nobody Knows. For the younger kids, it's the inability to escape to the outside world. For Akira, it's seeing the outside world and knowing he has too many responsibilities to participate in it--when he tries, the results are disastrous. As the children grow up and resources become more scarce, the film's tenacity to show every painful detail of their existence slows the pace to almost a standstill. Still, it's a lovely, haunting tale beset with unforced performances from its young actors, particularly Yagira, who won the best actor prize at Cannes. -- Ellen A. Kim
To the poet Hirokazu Koreeda An English haiku offered in tribute to the poetic film "Nobody Knows":
Irresponsibles age all--light and bright suitcase now heavy as death.
Heartbreakingly Endearing I was product surfing for new films to watch and decided to pick one at random, as this won the Chicago 2004 Film Festival I thought it'd be a good one to pick. It was.
The storyline is simple but captivating in its own way. The story follows 12 year old Akira and his enigmatic, alcoholic, and immature mother whose only real focus is on her new boyfriends and not her kids. After moving to their new home, Akira's mother comes home less and less and eventually leaves a note that she's not coming back forever.
Akira lies to his younger siblings to keep their spirits up, but he has to deal with the truth that he is on his own to take care of his family.
At first he is able to live off the little money his mother sends him, but eventually he becomes broke. He gives his siblings what freedoms he can while keeping them hidden from the landlord or risk being thrown out the the apartment. When they're seen Akira must lie again and tell the landlord that they are his "cousins."
After weeks of the strain on money the AC is shut off, the water is shut off, and the electricity too. Akira struggles to find what money he can. He finds some help in a girl named Saki. She tries to offer Akira money but her refuses.
Eventually the strain kicks completely and the strain causes tense rifts in the family that can only be tied together by simple joys of joking around and spending time in the park.
This story is straightforward but speaks in a way that shows the real stages of growing up as well as understanding the world of adults even at a young age.
The heartwarming younger siblings who have to smile and keep Akira going forward make the film what it is. They give a positive unbroken aura of innocence even when Akira must give up his for reality.
I highly recommend this film to anyone who enjoyed "Grave of the Fireflies" or likes realistic films that express important aspects of life as people grow up and move onwards.
This is a job well done and is a piece that greatly deserves praise!
Unrealisitc, immature plot line This film is set in Tokyo and is about 4 children, fathered by four men to one mother (who is/was a prostitute).
The mother lives a mysterious live and abandons the children for increasing periods of time. The children don't go to school and are not known to anyone. In fact, the mother has to smuggle three of them into their rented flat in suitcases so the landlord does not know they exist. The film tells the story of how the children survive.
The problem I have with this film is that while the original premise of the plot is original and potentially interesting, the story becomes more and more unbelievable (I don't want to give too much of the plot away). Where are social services, the police, the landlord etc (the children are eventually unable to pay bills and have water, gas and electricity cut off). In fact where was the plot. Character development is poor. The mother's character is not developed (and she is surely the pivotal character). There is also some random school girl who ends up spending more and more time with them. What happened to her parents?
The last bit of the film is the most unbelievable part and brings together all of what I have said nicely.
very good view on the japanese everyday life if you are interested on japanese everyday life, this film is a must! And the cast is wonderfull!
Unbearably long I'm sorry, I usually will praise a poignant movie, but this one is so stretched out I couldn't help losing patience and hit fast forward through a great much of it, doing 4x speed. I'd make sure to go to real speed when it was obvious there was dialogue. I don't think I missed much as much of the movie is just microscopic observing day to day to day. It's like something you want to put in the oven to make it shrink whole. Terrific acting, a compelling story, very well made with nice cinematography, but what can I say, it was unbearably long, even in fast forward. Hey, I've got a life to live. I don't need to sit and have the poignant stretched out to almost 2 1/2 hours unnecessarily. I got it. The movie is long because it forces you to empathize with how their life is a long unbearable waiting. I got that at 4x speed, thank you. There's a great many long movies, longer than this one, which I love and don't feel the length unnecessary at all. I suppose every scene here is "telling," but please, respect your audience. Give your audience more credit for picking up the nuances without having to make them stare at each one ten minutes at a time. Every little moment is not all that profound just because it is filmed well. The best way to say it is, it was overindulgent in the situation. The cutting room floor does have it valid purposes.
I can only give this movie three stars simply because of the unbearable pace. Otherwise, everything else about it might have made it to 5, at least 4 stars. The boy did deserve his best actor award. I'll get a lot of negative ratings for this review. You always get many negative ratings of your review when you have something not particularly nice to say about a well made movie which a lot of people say they love. I suppose a lot of people think this movie is perfect. Is that true, or are you not being perfectly honest? The length experience is probably very subjective. I can say I watched a very good memorable film with lots of good memorable images and scenes, but it was so so very unnecessarily long in the watching. It's a bit of a paradox for me that way, but you have to be truthful in your reviews. It's a recommendable film, but with a huge warning--it's only for the most patient among us. Guess I didn't qualify.
After you watch the film, do an online search for "Affair of the four abandoned children of Sugamo" which will turn up accounts of the real story the movie is "based on." The real story is a much grimmer reality than what this film depicts. That fact is quite revealing about the movie maker and his intentions. The disparity between the real story and the movie's story raises the question of when you can actually claim, "based on a true story." It'd be better to say something like, the idea was inspired by a true story, but apart from that, it's actually an entirely fictional creation with no intention of actually depicting the true story. The movie maker's made up world is a fundamentally different world created for his own purposes. Don't watch this film believing that it's documenting a true story. It's not. You can probably say that about maybe 95%--or probably more--of movies "based on a true story." History and entertainment are two practices that should, necessarily, always be in complete conflict with each other. Each has its own path upon which the other will not long happily tread since each has entirely different essential goals.
Anything Goes Trivia
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