FILM-FORWARD.COMReviews of Recent Independent, Foreign, & Documentary Films in Theaters and DVD/Home Video
NOBODY KNOWS
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
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