User Reviews

A woman by the name of Keiko moves into an apartment with her son, Akira, smuggling in her other three, younger children so the landlord doesn't know of their existence. Some weeks go by, and the mother meets a man. She goes off with him and doesn't return for many months, leaving twelve-year-old Akira in charge of the household. He struggles to care for his family, barely scraping by with what little money his mother left. Somehow, he manages to do it with no serious ramifications. Keiko eventually returns, but it's not for long, and young Akira is forced once again to take up the mantle and look after his siblings; though this time it will be a much more difficult and lengthy process, with far more devastating results.

Hirokazu Koreeda's 'Nobody Knows' is a powerful, poignant drama based on the infamous Sugamo child abandonment case of 1988. The film is quietly affecting, telling the simple story of how Akira is forced to act like an adult to his siblings, trying to keep them safe and sound while being but a child himself: a Sisyphean task if ever there was one. Koreeda's screenplay is free of unnecessary sentiment or pretention; it is direct and unflinching, exploring many themes, the importance of parenthood being but one.

Koreeda's story is honest and emotionally charged, with minimal dialogue and layered characterization that is full of vivid believability and depth. The audience cares deeply for Akira and his siblings, as well as understanding- if not liking- Keiko and how she could leave her family for so long. It is masterful, understated screenwriting that will really hit home. Koreeda's best films explore humanity and connection, how everybody needs somebody sometime (to paraphrase the Dean Martin song). 'Nobody Knows' does too; to great effect.

It is worth mentioning that- in addition to writing and directing- Koreeda also acts as his own editor, so the tone and pacing is consistent from page to screen. The film moves at its' own pace, which is reserved but steady; ever-forging onwards towards the dramatic conclusion like a soldier in the snow. Also of note is Yutaka Yamazaki's restrained and naturalistic cinematography. His work is subtle and assured, resulting in images captured both with clarity and an artistic sense of space and composition. Yamazaki and Koreeda have worked together numerous times, with their collaborations usually resulting in striking, visually inventive films that one remembers long after seeing them. 'Nobody Knows' is another notch on their proverbial shared belt.

An old showbusiness adage goes "you should never work with children or animals," which is proven to be complete poppycock when one witnesses the efforts of the remarkable cast in 'Nobody Knows.' Yûya Yagira stars as Akira, delivering a captivating, masterful performance of integrity, profundity and subtle emotional perspicuity. Yagira is a brilliant performer, who can transmit emotions and say much- near incomparable in intensity and eloquence- with his physicality and through his silence. He was only thirteen when the film was shot and Yagira shows more intelligence and depth than most actors four times his age. He is a remarkably intuitive and natural actor who is fascinating to watch; and the power of his performance will have you frequently in tears while watching 'Nobody Knows.'

His siblings are played wonderfully by Ayu Kitaura, Hiei Kimura and Momoko Shimizu, with Shimizu particularly impressing as the youngest child Yuki. Yukiko Ehara- better known as You- plays the mother, Keiko, and is perfect for the character. You doesn't play her as totally selfish, more as a young woman whose life raising children alone isn't what she wanted, and is desperate for things to change. She brings to the character much depth and charm; despite being slightly incorrigible. Rounding out the main cast is Hanae Kan, who plays a school-girl Akira befriends. She makes for a welcome addition to the film, and delivers a strong performance to boot.

Hirokazu Koreeda's 'Nobody Knows' is a sad, quiet film about abandonment that will move any with heart strings left to tug. Featuring powerful performances from the cast- especially the young Yûya Yagira- and striking cinematography from Yutaka Yamazaki; the film is not easily forgotten. Poignant, profound and powerful, 'Nobody Knows' is unaffected, uncompromising and unforgettable cinema.

If your local art theater plays it, go watch it. Find it in DVD store if you can. Rent it through your local mega movie renting store if you have to. Everyone has to watch this movie.

As a highly urbanized country, Japan is subjected to constant social problem, more so than other developed country. Hence, often you will have your Japanese movies that reminds us these problems, Tokyo Godfather, Fireworks, etc.

Nobody Knows is one of them from another angle.

Its director likes to use close up on little details like finger nails, shoes, t-shirt collar to tell the audience what kind of situation it is for the victims in the movie. Often we neglect these little details; often we neglect the unfortunate people around us.

Once in a while we have a world disaster, we all jumped in, we all gave our helping hands, we all praised greatly how much help we gave on TV. Comparing and contrast the figures of aids given with other countries, even. Little things, little unfortunate things happened around us, everyday, everywhere, they are all nicely tucked under our lavish mat and those story never told, those needed aid never arrived. Because they have no news value or because helping a few people doesn't gain enough prestige?

Nobody knows, as the title suggest, We never aware of these problems, by our own choice or not. The movie has an unusual slow pace. There is no climax, everything just get worse. Just the those misfortune people nobody knows, their life are not full of excitement, everyday is another to get by, nothing to wish for, nothing to hope for. Nobody Knows depicts the days of these unsounded misfortune. You could have seen the unfortunate events to come. You would have wished they would not come. One by one they came.

The brilliant part, Nobody Knows lets its audiences decide the ending.

"Children can not choose their parents" This was what came into my mind after I saw this movie.

This movie is based on actual incident happened in 1988. It was much more miserable than the movie. A woman was living with a man. She thought he had filed the marriage notification. When their son was born, the man said he had filed the birth notification. One day he left her to live with another woman. When the boy reached the primary school age, she knew neither the marriage notification nor the birth notification were filed. Facing this situation, she decided to hide her children from the society. (According to another source, the mother told the police that she thought the birth notification of a bastard child would not be accepted.)

She had met several men and had 5 children, two boys and three girls, who were not registered and hidden from other people. When the second boy died of sick, she hid the corps in the closet. While she works in a department store, the eldest son took care of three sisters. When the eldest son was 14, she went out to live with her new man, who was 16 years older than her. She gave the eldest son her address. When the children were protected by the police half a year later, a girl was dead, and the two were debilitated, as they were confined in a room and poorly fed. The girls were 3 and 2 y/o and still used diapers, but they were changed only once every day. It is reported that the eldest boy blamed himself for not being able to take good care of his sisters, instead of blaming his mother...

Compared to the real story, the movie is less miserable. In the movie, even the little boy and girl look normal and pretty, but in the real story they were very poorly developed. But it was still more than enough to surprise me. What a mother! In a conversation with the eldest boy, she says "May I not become happy?" She acts on this thought, without thinking of the same right about her children. Her childish lisping talk describes her immaturity. And of course, men were more guilty. Sadly, children can not choose their parents.

Every child acted amazingly well, very natural. Particularly, the eyes of the eldest boy, Akira, are very impressive. The eyes tell many things from their miserable life.

"Nobody Knows" is painful to watch. It's a story you won't shake off, depicting the most defenseless of humans -- four young children, the oldest only twelve -- trapped in growing poverty and abandonment. It's a process-narrative of devolution that makes you feel helpless and angry and sad. It's saved from mawkishness by the natural energy of the children playing the roles of the four kids. And if it survives, its not because of its treatment of a social issue so much as for its evocation of the precise details of childhood.

There are two main subjects here. One is criminal neglect: the story is loosely based on events that happened in Tokyo in 1988. The other is the private, often secret, lives of children. Koreeda began as a documentary filmmaker and this seems to have given him exceptional skill in working with people and capturing their natural reactions. The winning, tragic children in "Nobody Knows," four half-siblings with different fathers and the same childish, selfish mother, never seem to be acting and often no doubt aren't. Nonetheless the subtlety of expression in the delicate, mobile, beautiful face of the older boy, young Yûya Yagira, was such that it won him the Best Actor award at Cannes last year.

Also important is Koreeda's gift for detail, his meditative examinations of fingernails, feet, a toy piano, video games, pieces of paper, objects strewn around a room, the hundreds of little soft drink bottles that are everywhere in Japan, plants, dirt, all the small things children see because they're closer to the ground. And the things they accept because they're defenseless and innocent, but also incredibly adaptable.

Akira, who's only ten and whose voice changed during year spent making the movie, is in charge. As their mother's absences become lengthier and the children finally seem to be abandoned for good, money runs out. Akira is captain of a sinking ship, a somber duty, but he and his little sisters and brother keep finding time to laugh and play.

Koreeda's a passionately serious filmmaker: the two better known of his earlier fiction films deal with death and loss and here he considers as a given the worst of human carelessness and indifference both by society and the individual. "Maborosi" (1995) was a homage to Ozu but without Ozu's sense of social connectedness; it begins with an isolated couple in the city and chronicles a young widow's second marriage in the country through a slow pastiche of observed daily scenes where event and even dialogue are minimal concerns. The content of "Maborosi" is too thin, but the images and color are exquisite and the sequences of natural, unrehearsed-looking scenes achieve an impressively rich, beautiful, zen-like calm. "After Life" (1998) uses actual recollections of older people talking to the camera to build up a fantasy about dead souls held temporarily in a bureaucratic pre-Heaven limbo being asked to choose a single favorite memory to take with them into eternity: the effect is perplexing, thought-provoking, charming, and with great economy of means, cinematic.

"Nobody Knows" isn't as brilliant or resolved as "After Life" or as exquisitely visual as "Maborosi," but for all its rambling excessive length it delivers a quantity of undigested patient misery and joy that will evoke such noble antecedents from the classic world of cinematic humanism as Clément's "Forbidden Games," De Sica's "Bicycle Thief," and the homeless father and son living on garbage in Kurosawa's Do-des-ka-den.

What's new here though is a sense of the encompassing otherness of big modern cities and the stoicism and resiliency of childhood (and perhaps also of the Japanese personality). Keiko, the childish, weak, spoiled mother (played effectively -- we instantly hate her -- by You, who's some sort of pop star in Japan), sneaks three of her four children into the new apartment and tells them they can't go out, can't show themselves even on the balcony. (In the real event, this was largely because they were illegitimate and had no papers, but here the explanation is that their noise may get them evicted.) Only Akira can leave, and she won't let him or the others go to school. They're prisoners of their urban anonymity and of an impersonal contemporary society.

As in Andrew Berkin's "Cement Garden," the children also pretend everything's okay to escape the cruelty of the social welfare system. We watch agonizingly -- and many writers say the movie's somewhat too long; it does feel thus especially during the first hour -- but this time Koreeda's world is more direct and specific than before and there's plenty of talk. The children chatter among themselves. Eventually they go out and mix a bit by day with other children. Akira even talks to himself; he has to, because there's no adult coaching him so he must impersonate an elder adviser.

Whatever its roughness and excess, "Nobody Knows" is intense and powerful film-making. Koreeda has put his whole heart and soul into this movie and with it achieves an experience you can't shrug off. Nor will you forget the kids, especially the beautiful boy, Yûya Yagira, who may be growing inch by inch into a star even as we speak.

There are very few films I have seen that had the power to affect me as deeply as Nobody Knows. As highly as I recommend it, I must also forewarn, that this film has power, some very serious power. To call Hirokazu Koreeda's Nobody Knows anything less than a masterpiece would be an insult to the story it tells. The craftsmanship we witness here, from the masterful direction to the outstanding performances that the children were able to commit to, are all something of incredible proportions.

Nobody Knows, which is a true story, tells of four siblings, ages 5-12, from different fathers, who live in a small apartment in Tokyo. At first, they live in the apartment with their childish Mother who is hardly ever home. With the exception of the oldest, Akira, the mother snuck the children in to keep the rent lower and prohibits them from ever leaving the apartment, even the veranda, for fear of them being seen. The children do not go to school. As they look after each other, all they do is patiently and affectionately wait for their mother to come home.

As the story progresses, the children wake up one morning to some money on the kitchen table with a note from their mother saying that she'll be home in a month. As Akira steps up and takes charge of the apartment, the bills, and his siblings, the children still hold hope that mother will be home soon. And then, Nobody Knows hits you like a truck and goes right through you. Complete Abandonment. The smiles diminish and the childish affection for a mother that will never return is gone. Gone to play mother to another family, it is now entirely up to Akira, with money running out.

Koreeda's direction of the children is exceptional, as if the film was shot entirely candid. The camera-work is sincere, as if we were one of the children stuck in that apartment. There are no gimmicks here, no slide of hand, or post-production miracles. Nobody Knows is raw, and thrives in Koreeda's ability to capture the distinct personalities of all four siblings, their hopes, and those secretive moments where Koreeda directs the children not for the stories sake, but for the sake of the children being children.

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Nobody Knows is the performances of the four children. All four children, who conjured phenomenal performances, were played by Japanese youths with no film backgrounds. After you see the film, it is likely that Koreeda preferred it this way, tapping into the honesty and energy that such youth had to offer. Their performances are so sincere and beautiful that on several occasions the tears will start to fall, the goose bumps will rise, and your heart will undoubtedly cry out to rescue these children, to grab them in your arms and set them free.

Without giving too much away, one of the most touching scenes to me, is on Yuki's birthday, the only thing she wants is to be able to go outside for a walk with her big brother Akira. So when the night comes, she puts on her little bear slippers, an ear to ear smile on her face, and with her hand in her brothers hand, they set her heart free for if not only a night.

Nobody Knows is a film that I will never let go of. This film impacted me so much and I found it so absolutely remarkable, that it hasn't left my mind since it's viewing. I almost feel that recommending this film just isn't enough, and all I can say is that I hope everyone gets the chance to enjoy this film for all that it is worth. As sure as it is to invoke emotion, it is as sure to please as a piece of cinema.

It has been a while since I saw a film with this much humanity. That is, until I saw acclaimed Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda's latest, Nobody Knows, about a quartet of siblings left to fend for themselves.

It's heartbreaking, just thinking about some of these random moments subtly displayed on screen. The look on an adolescent girl's face when her mom paints her nails. A little boy making silly faces in the mirror. A little girl's scribbling of stick people on a gas bill that has been months overdue... I can go on.

I wish I can put into words, or convey in some sort of way, the flowing of rampant emotions experienced when I saw these images: about how much it hit so close to home, how much it reminded me of my own family. But I can't. I guess it simply cannot be articulated in such a concise, simplified manner.

You'll just have to see it for yourself.

I feel so strongly about this film I don't know if I can even talk about it. I feel as though it is almost another kind of film-making entirely, than we've been used to. If anyone wants to correct me and point me to films that this is in a tradition of, please do. One of the most profound things in the film for me was the manner in which it was made, which contained such great honesty and respect for its characters and seems to have been told truly from a child perspective - not an adult concept of a child's perspective (big difference). Sorry for the hyperbole ... this is the only film I've felt moved to comment on here. A must-see.

Kore-eda's newest feature continues in the same vein as his other unhurried and placid works. His characters are caught in a state of flux, between transitionary moments, exemplified perfectly in his serene and incredibly original film, "After Life." Other reviewers have frequently mentioned that film as a note of comparison, but really "Nobody Knows" hearkens back further in the director's career to his sublime and visually intoxicating "Maboroshi," about a widow coping with the sudden death of her spouse. Kore-eda is in his comfort zone here, capturing moments of transcendental beauty in the quotidian. What makes Kore-eda such a gifted artist behind the lens, and one of the more important active filmmakers, is his ability to linger on such moments – a stain of nail polish on a hardwood floor or a static shot of a playground in the rain – while making such snapshots appear fleeting. Different shot after shot appears briefly, he lets us soak it in, and then it's gone. Perhaps no other director working today can capture the natural beauty around us, and transfigure that sublimity so effortlessly in single flashes.

Of course, like some other reviewers on this site have mentioned, nearly two and a half hours of hot flashes is tiring and demands something else to alleviate it from monotony. To paraphrase Samuel Johnson on "Paradise Lost," no one would wish this thing ran any longer. It's all good to tell a story visually, and nothing wrong for a film to run long if it can sustain it, but each "moment" captures the same feelings over and over again – i.e. loneliness, longing, and despair, or what is essentially the struggle to overcome desperation. With a story of such linear decline, then, there is little else besides all the same emotions washing over us until one is totally subsumed in bleak numbness. When there is a break, like a baseball game, the result is more absurd Beat Takeshi irony than serene Kore-eda sobriety. While each shot might be different here, since we know the plot can only really head in one direction, Kore-eda's latest then suffers from too long a running time to sustain the unchanging essence of his film. The repetitive tone and tempo might be the point, sure, but is rather pointless when the ideas are all the same.

This chief fault keeps this film from becoming a mark on the director's canon, but "Nobody Knows" is still filled with those pretty important ideas. As some critics have pointed out, the film is mitigated by a sense of anger that this was in fact a real-life event, but Kore-eda's treatment is what distinguishes his piece from an enraged social tract like, say, Paul Greengrass's "Bloody Sunday." Despite this sense of anger (Kore-eda has said in interviews that his parents were largely absent in his youth as well) the film is nearly absent of sentimentality (nearly, except for the ending). A Japanese obsession with cuteness still remains, but the film is thankfully more realistic in portraying emotions; the kids look at their misfortunes with a level eye, and the protagonist Akira snaps at his siblings from frustration on a couple occasions. This might be a good spot to mention the excellent job by Yuya Yagira, who's bravura and remarkably detailed physical performance (really extraordinary for his age) here might mean he's Japan's coming of Haley Joel. His real variety in emotion is a welcome contrast, as such sweet monochromatism is too often a problem concerning films that deal with children in bleak circumstances (Isao Takahata's consistently, cloyingly sweet lead characters in "Grave of the Fireflies" come quickly to mind).

Kore-eda's insistence that his characters remain pure and unsullied is another reason why this film on innocence betrayed is made more poignant. He illustrates this loss with images, but through what is not shown as well. Despite the fact that the family owns a television but not once watches it, for example. He concedes video games to Akira and his friends, but Kore-eda's emphasis is clearly on the organicism of youth and the desire that all kids deep down would rather engage in painting or botany than watch the boob tube. It's the adults in this world who are selfish, and yet through their negligence are only too willing to shuffle off these kids to that same self-importance. But nobody knows, or nobody will know, or nobody wants to know; to do so would be to stick out one's neck for someone and stop smothering the pet dog. Undoubtedly a bit unfair, but effectively presented nonetheless.

In other words, this isn't some art-house Ken Loach social tract; Kore-eda makes sure his ideas are all right there, but he doesn't pretentiously spell them out. The audience needs to work, even if the length of the film ensures that they'll be putting in some unnecessary overtime.

In Tokyo, the reckless single mother Keiko (You) moves to a small apartment with her twelve years old son Akira Fukushima (Yûya Yagira) and hidden in the luggage, his siblings Kyoko (Ayu Kitaura), Shigeru (Hiei Kimura) and Yuki (Momoko Shimizu). The children have different fathers and do not have schooling, but they have a happy life with their mother. When Keiko finds a new boyfriend, she leaves the children alone, giving some money to Akira and assigning him to take care of his siblings. When the money finishes, Akira manages to find means to survive with the youngsters without power supply, gas or water at home, and with the landlord asking for the rental.

"Dare mo Shiranai" is a sensitive movie based on a true and very sad story. The performances of the children are amazing, highlighting the look of Yûya Yagira, and the drama is developed in a slow, but suitable pace. The direction is effective and the music score is absolutely adequate to the film. However, living in Rio de Janeiro, where we see homeless children begging on the streets everywhere, the terrible situation of Akira and his siblings does not impress the way it certainly does in First World countries. The abandoned children of the film have an apartment to live and food to eat, what does not happen in Third World countries, where famine children live on the streets in a sadder and unacceptable reality. The open conclusion is a little disappointing, since it does not bring any message of hope or lack of hope to the poor children. It seems that life goes on only. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Ninguém Pode Saber" ("Nobody Can Know")

Hirokazu Kore-eda has always had a distinctive style of film-making. More than others he loves the static shot, where action often takes place outside the frame; movement in and out of the frame of reference is common while the camera does not move. That's why his movies are sometimes perceived as slow and unevolving.

The same with storytelling: a significant part of the story takes place outside the story on screen. And even in a scene the whole scene is never completely obvious: We often have to fill in the details. The effect requires much attention from the viewer, but can also be very interesting or downright shocking.

All his movies also seem to restrict the space where the movie plays out. Repetitive shots in Dare mo shiranai / Nobody Knows of the shopping street, the stairs, the home, etc. seem to strengthen this notion, in order to tell how restricted the world is for the children portrayed. This is further enhanced by the element of time: Time becomes less important throughout the movie as the mother's visits become less and less predictable (the use of the seasons contradicts this in a way).

In communication between actors much emphasis is laid on non-verbal communication, which is superbly done here. (In Distance this went even so far that the story was almost completely told in this way).

Conclusion: Dare mo shiranai/ Nobody Knows is a rewarding movie, but for patient viewers only.

"Nobody knows" demonstrates the hardness and crudity of life. The film is as simple as disturbing; it leaves you dumbstruck with every scene. You shudder remembering that the film is based on real facts. "Nobody knows" shows the life of four siblings abandoned by their parents, and how the older one (who is only 12 years old) tries to take care of his brothers. Nobody knows why those children have to confront a wicked thing which they doesn't deserve; this wicked thing was already part of their lives when they were born. Even so, since the first minute, the film irradiates optimism: before their mother abandon them, the family seems a poor family but so happy in spite of; even the difficulties that the siblings have to go on, it seems that they will survive (it is as if there is not enough wickedness to hinder the passing of life). The movie is strongly reinforced by the actors' performances (really striking and outstanding), it is as if a hidden camera was filming their lives without they noticing it. The boy who play Akira won the Best Performance by an Actor award in the Cannes Festival, but the truth is that the four children deserve the award.

Today I went to the pre-screening of "Nobody Knows," a stunningly brilliant film by director Hirokazu Koreeda who also directed the philosophical "After Life."

What if I were a 12 years old boy and left alone to take care of two younger sisters and one younger brother in a big city like Tokyo, and I have to hide them in the apartment so nobody knows about them? That's what I have been thinking when I was watching this film and how the film gets my sympathy for these children. It allows me to experience the ordeal through these children's eyes and the transcending performance by Yuya Yagira, who is the youngest actor ever won the best actor award in the history of Cannes Film Festival.

Director Koreeda allows the camera to take the time to shoot and he never rushes from one scene to the next. He let me observe, let me feel, let me be as close to these children as I possibly can, until I can no longer take it and until I am drowned by the frustration and sadness. I become as helpless as those children, because I simply can not resist the urge to help them. That makes me cry. Through out the film, Koreeda masterfully positioned his lenses to ordinary objects around these children, such as simply a finger, a hand, a stain, a foot, or four empty glasses. But through these zoomed in images, I have no trouble to "see" and "feel" what's going on in the whole picture. And it tells the story in a more profound fashion and more personal way, a story you will never forget, along with those images, sometimes, even the music.

The 12 years old boy is played by Yuya Yagira, who has a haircut like the Japanese animation character. Yagira's outstanding performance is original and remarkable, and simply unforgettable. Through him, you see a premature 12 years old boy who is acting as an adult to take care the other kids, meanwhile, he is still a 12 years old kid, who will just like other kids around his age. That's make this movie can be so hard to watch sometimes, because no matter how hard your heart is, it will be softened by watching his struggle to survive. It's hard to leave this movie with dry eyes.

There is no doubt in my mind that this is the best film I have seen this year.

A mom that should not be a mom.

A kid that wanted to be a kid and is never allowed to be it.

Fantastic acting overall.

A punch in the stomach.

When we are talking about family dramas, Koreeda does it like no other.

'Dare mo shiranai' (NOBODY KNOWS) is a gleaming little film by writer/director Hirokazu Koreeda that offers a version of a true story so simply and eloquently that by the end of the film the audience is powerfully moved - without gimmicks, without imitation emotional devices, without major stars. It just simply works. Though the film is long at 2 1/2 hours the journey is well worth it and indeed the prolonged length seems necessary to convey the plight of these touching children's plight.

The film opens (during the titles) on public transportation where a youthful mother Keiko (the pop star You) and her young son Akira (Yûya Yagira) sit guarding an ugly pink suitcase and other bags. Keira and Keiko have rented a poor little apartment promising the landlord that Keiko will make no noise. Once inside their new home the ugly bags are open and two additional children emerge and a trip to the bus station adds yet a third child! Thus, 'unknown' to the landlord, the apartment contains a family of five! Soon Keiko leaves on a trip to 'make money', leaving some cash with Akira who is placed in charge of his brother and sisters. Of course, Keiko doesn't return except for one brief visit months later, and leaving the children to fend for themselves.

Akira manages to make friends outside, gaining food and money for good deeds and good will, keeping his little 'family' afloat. Gradually Akira realizes that Keiko will never return and through his friendship with a young girl still manages to eek out an existence: the manner in which he keeps his family happy is food for the soul! But despite his constant good intentions to maintain a life for his family, one of his sisters dies and he and his girl friend bury her where she can 'watch the airplanes'. And life goes on. There is no ending depicted, just continuum.

With the subtlest technique Koreeda creates a story so real that it pulsates. The child actors (especially Yûya Yagira) are so natural and fine that they grab our hearts tenaciously. The only music in this film is a few notes form a toy piano and quiet harp music that enhances the feeling of isolation of the children. This is a film of rare beauty, one that could have been edited a bit, but even that criticism is overshadowed by the impact of Hirokazu Koreeda's overall achievement. Very Highly Recommended. Grady Harp

I was quite disappointed with this movie, it was very slow, lacking in character arcs, plot or emotion. The abandonment and the 'fending for themselves' is interesting, but it's half shot like a documentary, half shot like a progressive drama. But there's very little to take from the film. The characters are pretty shallow, despite the great acting and close-up shots.

A movie this reminded me a lot of is King Of the Hill, a fantastically made movie about a boy left to fend for himself as his parents have to leave. There's adventure, a coming-of-age character arc, a plot with strong overtones. Very strongly written characters in addition to the good cast. Obviously they're not identical films, but I would recommend King Of The Hill tenfold over this. I'm a hugely into Asian cinema, but other than good camera-work, there's very little to this film.

Who would have thought that a film acted in by mostly kids would be this great? While watching this film, I somehow forgot these kids are acting. They are so natural, so real, that I am willing even to think that this is a documentary.

The characterizations are great, ranging from a responsible older brother Akira torn between his obligations and his intense desire to be just a normal young boy to the quiet second child Kyoko who looks wistfully at other young women, her eyes conveying that longing to be 'just like her'.

Yagura Yuuya deserved his Best Actor award at Cannes. The film fell heavily on his 14-year-old shoulders, and he turned out a winning performance. This ranks at the top of my favorite films.

When I purchased this movie from Amazon, then it was with a high level of expectation, as it had been getting great reviews just about anywhere you looked. And it was supposed to be such a great movie from these reviews.

And now having seen the movie, I can't really claim to see the hype about this movie. Now, I am not saying that the movie is bad or boring, far from it. It is actually an enjoyable movie, however it just wasn't all that spectacular.

You should note that this movie trots ahead at a fairly plain pace, without anything overly excitingly happening throughout the entire course of the movie. The story, as you might already know, is about a group of four children being left alone to fend for themselves in a small apartment in Japan, as their mother leaves them to "go to work" and doesn't come back; simply abandoning her children.

What makes the movie work is the purity and perfection in the acting performances put on by the four children in the lead roles. They really impressed me, and it was worth watching the movie for. The story itself become a secondary aspect to me, as it wasn't all that interesting. And at points the director, Hirokazu Koreeda, simply skips over some of the topics without delving too far into exploring them, and that made certain parts of the movie come off as rushed and not given the proper attention or screen time.

The characters in the movie were nicely detailed, and again nicely portrayed by the children hired to play these roles. It is characters that you immediately form a sort of bond and sympathy for, and you actually do ride along with them on their individual victories, triumphs and failures.

"Nobody Knows" is a nice movie, but personally I didn't get the hype around it, as I have seen far better movies. Oh, and a fair warning, note that the movie is rather long, at 140 minutes, or at least it seems long and to go on for a very long time because of the speed the movie progresses at.

Keiko is a single mother living with her four children (all from different fathers) in a cramped apartment she's recently rented in a middle class section of Tokyo. Fearful that they will be thrown out onto the streets if the neighbors or landlord discover the existence of the kids, she makes the three youngest ones stay indoors and out of sight while the oldest, 12-year-old Akira, is allowed to venture out to run errands and enjoy at least some semblance of a normal life. None of the children attend school. Despite his youth, Akira, in many ways, has been forced to assume the role of parent, providing for the other children while Keiko stays away for months at a time, ostensibly earning money working (though we are inclined to speculate that there may be a far more nefarious truth behind the absences that is never fully revealed to us).

Based on a true story, "Nobody Knows" is more of an observational study on human behavior than a full-fledged narrative; it is a film that uses the minutiae of everyday life, rather than heavy-handed plot points, to generate its drama. As virtual prisoners in their own apartment, the children survive as best they can without adult supervision or guidance. Indeed, in its own quiet way, the film serves as an allegory of a much larger issue, a stinging indictment against a society that too often abandons and neglects its children to pursue its own selfish interests - most often to devastating and disastrous results both for the youngsters themselves and for the society as a whole.

Beautifully written and directed by Hirokazu Koreeda, this is a heartrending film filled with moments of quiet perceptions and unforgettable images. The actors portraying the children are all truly amazing - wholly natural, unaffected and believable in front of the camera. Yuya Yagira, as young Akira, is basically called on here to carry the film and he does so in a way that leaves one awestruck and breathless. His is an exquisitely internalized performance, serious and stoic on the outside, yet with a sly mischievousness that peeks through from time to time to remind us that Akira is really just a kid at heart, forced to grow up much too fast and assume the mantle of adult responsibility that the actual "adults" around him have been all too eager to abandon. What's so heartbreaking about this film is watching these sweet (but never cloying) children being deprived of all the true essentials of a happy childhood - freedom, fresh air, open space, education, even food and electricity, not to mention the all-important feeling of security and belonging that comes with the love and guidance of a fully engaged parent. Yet, although they yearn for all these things, the children seem to accept their plight with a sort of uncomplaining fatalism combined with a love of one another and a resourcefulness and spirit of survival that is both astonishing and inspiring.

Nothing about "Nobody Knows" is ever obvious or underlined, not its message and certainly not its emotions. These seep into the film gradually and unobtrusively so as not to disturb the near-documentary nature of the movie. We feel almost as if we are eavesdropping on the children, as if we were the very neighbors from whom they are trying so desperately to hide. There's no point in denying that the movie requires patience from the viewer, for it achieves its power subtly and slowly, through an artfully arranged accumulation of activities and details. Yet, this is precisely what draws us into the world of the film and makes us, finally, not mere observers but rather empathetic participants with the characters.

It takes time to get to where it's going, but "Nobody Knows" will leave an indelible mark on your heart.

Sure "Nobody knows" has an interesting premise with 4 children forced to live on their own and how they are coping with it. But I nearly fell asleep several times through the movie because the way of its storytelling (if you can call it that because it pretty much leads nowhere) is unbelievably slow. The movie starts of with the family moving into a new flat, at that point its just the single mom with the oldest son Akira who introduces herself to the landlord while the younger kids are smuggled in the flat in suitcases and oldest sister Kyoko arrives by train. You never quite get to know how things came to become like this... the kids are hidden and like the title says nobody knows about their existence because except for Akira who becomes kind of the caring father for the family no kid is allowed to leave the flat. From here on the movie just deals with their everyday routine... the mother, a prostitute as I expect, is absent more and more until she disappears and just sends cash by mail. She is depicted as a loving yet kind of childlike mother who can't take the responsibility.

The fathers are all different guys who are introduced shortly as non caring slackers but I never understood why these kids all don't go to school with their mother telling them they can't because they don't have fathers. A lot is left pretty wide open and I guess the mother is supposed to have some mental defect, otherwise the whole thing is pretty unbelievable. When she meets a man and disappears Akira finally becomes the father part of the family trying to cope with feeding the kids and taking care of the flat while finding some friends and trying to live a normal kids live which obviously fails in the less than normal surrounding. Bills don't get paid, the kids lose electricity and then water and try to get by getting water from a playground fountain and doing laundry there. Later in the movie they leave their flat but it seems like nobody cares if they do and honestly the viewer cares less too because the movie is so slow with so little dialog and some scenes stretched to a seemingly endless level. The characters sure are interesting, especially Akira and the sweet little Yuki amidst that mess she couldn't choose. It looks like Akira wants to keep the kids together because he fears they could be separated to several child homes if someone finds out.

But thats about all you know... the daily routine is getting more desperate, the state of the flat and the kids clothes is deteriorating and finally Yuki gets ill. What makes it hard to get into the movie beside the extremely slow pacing is that the kids are not depicted as a loving family but rather like just trying to get by. The barely talk and seem separate so their fun time strolls as well as Yukis dramatic burial (sure, you get a piece of drama too) seem distant and right then the movie ends. Mother keeps sending cash by mail, everything just goes on. I pretty much felt left down after watching this boring movie with an end like this. Seeing the 8point votes I really wonder if we watched the same movie because since the cinematography was rather average and the music close to non existing there is not much that makes me want to give more than 4points to this one. Only for people who are into slow artsy dramas with endless shots.