‘Nobody Knows’, in Japanese with English subtitles, is written, directed and produced by Hirokazu Kore-eda. Based on an infamous true story about a Japanese mother who abandoned her 4 kids in a tiny apartment in a large city, it is a harrowing depiction of life as it should not be.

From the earliest scenes, in which the mom and the eldest boy smuggle the two youngest kids into their new apartment in suitcases (because younger children are considered undesirable by the landlord and other tenants), we get a good idea of the sheer callousness of the mother.

Played by Japanese TV star, You, the mother is a ditzy character who has serious problems, most of them unacknowledged. She’s affectionate with the children, granted, but totally irresponsible. She would come home drunk late at night, wake them all up, and paint the girls’ nails. None of the children (all have different, absent, fathers) is allowed to go to school. She leaves them weeks at a time, to be with men who know nothing of the children’s existence, leaving some cash and charging the oldest boy to take care of his three younger siblings.

Played by non-actor Yuya Yagira who won the best actor prize at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival for his portrayal of 12-year-old Akira, this eldest brother takes on the role of parent in the absence of their mother. He cooks while the older girl does the laundry (late at night, as the washing machine is on the balcony of the tiny apartment and she can’t be seen by the neighbours), and they try to keep the younger ones quiet and off the balcony.

But when their mother’s absence stretches to months and the money runs out (all too quickly, with rent and utilities to be paid), Akira has to avoid the landlord who comes asking for rent. All too soon the water and electricity are cut off and their hygiene standards plummet. Ever resourceful, they wash themselves and do their laundry at a nearby park.

Throughout the movie, it seemed to me incredible that the children’s existence, sans parents, could have been overlooked by neighbours, but even though the landlord cut off their electricity and water, and the landlord’s young wife walked into the apartment one day to find the children living in squalour, no-one was bothered enough to inquire further into their situation and do something about it.

Having been separated before by social services, Akira was determined not to let it happen again, so apart from searching out a couple of the fathers and asking for money to tide them over a short period of time, he never tried to get help elsewhere. But even so, with the four of them unkempt and trailing their buckets, bottles and laundry to the park and back, it seemed inconceivable that they went unnoticed for a whole year.

In fact, this was partly the director’s message. "The question of child neglect is a growing, pressing one in Japan today, although the situation that those kids were in was unique," Kore-eda said in an interview. "What it does reflect, though, is the lack of community in Japan, the loosening of neighbourly and community ties. People may observe each other's behaviour and lives, but there's no will or impulse to know, to intervene."

Kore-eda is, obviously, a man with an overwhelming impulse to know. His films Distance, After Life and Maborosi were centred around death. And though Nobody Knows does not escape that focus, ‘fundamentally,’ Kore-eda said, ‘it's about the urge to keep on living. In my own self-analysis I would say it's not so much death that interests me but how we who have experienced death digest it, incorporate it and move beyond it to keep on living."

In Nobody Knows, Akira transcends his harrowing, even horrifying, predicaments. Like the seeds which the children plant in dirt salvaged from the street, the children grow, somewhat haphazardly, over the course of a year. Unusually, Kore-eda spent a whole year in total filming, so that the camera records the actual growth of the children, as can be noticed readily by their lengthening hair, and by the relative maturing of the younger ones in particular.

"I keep experimenting with my method on each film," Kore-eda said. "At the core of my approach is my experience in documentary filmmaking, how to create a relationship between myself behind the camera and those people who are in front of the camera. Although the roles were fictional, I tried to create a world where the camera was just present. It became a natural part of the children's environment, so I was able to elicit very natural responses and expressions."

As the children’s performance can attest, he succeeded remarkably. I found this movie exceptionally harrowing, so much so that I was besieged by disturbing dreams and slept badly the whole night. My husband claims he had an equally bad night, too. But I still feel it’s worth seeing, if only for the children’s performance and a story whose message is both timely and timeless--the breakdown of family and the real need for parents to shape and guide their children. As David Suzuki said, the number one threat to humanity is that not enough human beings are raised in an environment of love. I guess there just is no substitute for parental love. It sets us apart from those who’re not so privileged and starts us off on the right footing for life.

Kore-eda’s message is likewise important—-in our modern society, we simply do not care enough about those around us. We barely know our neighbours. We hardly care to. I think Kore-eda is saying that our very humanity is at stake. I believe he is right.







Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older