NOBODY KNOWS
Directed, Produced, Written & Edited by: Hirokazu Kore-eda.
Director of Photography: Yamazaki Yutaka.
Music by: Gontiti.
Released by: IFC.
Language: Japanese with English subtitles.
Country of Origin: Japan. 141 min. Not Rated.
With: Yuya Yagira, Ayu Kitaura, Hiei Kimura, Momoko Shimizu, Hanae Kan & You.

Based on a real-life tragedy, the "Affair of the Four Abandoned Children of Nishi-Sugamo," Nobody Knows follows the plight of four children abandoned by their mother. As in the 1988 incident, the neighbors in their apartment building fail to notice the children's existence. YOU, a widely popular TV personality in Japan, delivers a pitch-perfect performance as the young, alarmingly child-like mother. With the help of her 12-year-old son Akira (Yuya Yagira), she moves into an apartment with piles of large suitcases. Once they settle into their secluded three-room flat, Akira and his mother unzip the luggage to reveal her youngest children: 10-year-old Kyoko (Ayu Kitaura), seven-year-old Shigeru (Hiei Kimura) and Yuki (Momoko Shimizu), an impossibly sweet five-year-old.

Though the children all have different fathers, they share a strong love for one another. Even after their mother deserts them, they find ways to make their days a seemingly everlasting playtime. In close-ups, director Hirokazu Kore-eda focuses on the strawberry-flavored chocolates, the steam of instant noodles, and the smudged crayons - the unquestioning innocence and pleasures of childhood.

As the money their mother leaves them runs out, the reality of their situation creeps into their apartment in the forms of rotting garbage and canceled gas and electricity notices. Kore-eda does not permit any sort of dramatic resolution but builds tension through a melancholic, yet gentle tone - making Nobody Knows all the more brutal.

At 2 hours and 21 minutes, the film's pacing drags in places. The challenging length of the film is saved, however, by Yuya Yagira, whose performance made him the youngest ever to win the best actor award at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. Kore-eda's strength as a director shines through in how he captures all of his first-time actors at moments that are visually poetic and heart-wrenching. Neither melodramatic or resorting to shock tactics, Nobody Knows makes a both painful and affectionate discovery of moments within a small world that disappeared unnoticed. Marie Iida
February 4, 2005