Nobody Knows

DIR: Kore-eda Hirokazu | Japan | 2004 | 141min
In Japanese with English subtitles.

SHOWTIMES:
Wed. Sept. 29 | 2:40pm | Granville 7 Cinema, Theatre 3
Wed. Oct. 6 | 9:00pm | Granville 7 Cinema, Theatre 3

A single-mother and her 12-year-old son Akira greet their new landlords in the opening scenes of the latest from the director of After Life. Then, they move a couple of large suitcases very carefully upstairs to their apartment. Unzipping reveals two of Akira's younger siblings (there's one more who was old enough to take the train by herself). Nobody Knows is a fictionalised story based on real case studies of children abandoned in Tokyo. To say that depictions of real poverty in urban Japan are rare would be an understatement - i don't know that's i've seen any until now.

Needless to say, Akira's mother is a bit of a flake, and would rather pals around with her four children than be an adequate parent to them. Akira and next-eldest Kyoko basically take care of the kids and the house while she works. The children all long to attend school but only Akira is allowed to leave the house - to do grocery shopping (they had been forced to leave their last home, as small children are not usually welcomed in rental apartments). It isn't long before mentally absent mom actually physically disappears and Akira is left with the huge responsibility of caring for his siblings.

I won't lie and say that this film was not depressing - it was so sad. But for a while, Akira does a fantastic job of heading the household and keeping his family together. It's only when his hopes for his mother's return are squashed that he lets things slide. Yagira Yuya rightly won the Best Actor prize at Cannes this year for his stunning performance as Akira. He appears in every scene of the film, holding it together masterfully for the entire 2 hours and 20 minute runtime. Like all Kore-eda films, Nobody Knows is beautifully constructed, rich with details - the way Akira strokes the hard suitcase containing his youngest sister until it's safe to open, the passage of time shown through the cherry blossoms and growing hair - and strikes a very delicate balance between hope, courage and heart-break.