The heartbreakingly sad premise of Hirokazu Koreeda's film "Nobody Knows" was almost enough to keep me out of the theater. Four children, between the ages of twelve and three, live with their flighty mother in a small apartment in Tokyo. They do not go to school. With the exception of the eldest, twelve-year-old Akira (Yûya Yagira), they do not go outside. Ever. When their mother abandons them, these well-behaved kids continue to follow her rules, surviving in their own enclosed, invisible universe.
"Nobody Knows" is, in fact, heartbreakingly sad. But it is also fascinating and, oddly, often a joy to watch. Because of these kids, these four beautiful, serious, happy, ordinary, but somehow extraordinary children: Akira, Kyoko (Ayu Kitaura), Shigerou (Hiei Kimura), and wide eyed, little Yuki (Momoko Shimizu) who is so precious her sad end is almost understood from the start. Determined to stay together, the children obstinately try to piece together a normal domestic existence which includes cooking and cleaning, regular baths, quiet play time, and school work. Often, this motherless, penniless, sun-light deprived family unit seems surprisingly happy.
Koreeda shot the film over a year’s time, editing as he worked; the children physically change, making the story seem less like a narrative film and more like an unnerving entry into a secret world. Over time, the beautiful, well kept kids begin to resemble street urchins. Akira’s voice changes. The straight, even bangs of neatly groomed Kyoko grow out completely. The kids' clean clothes (fastidiously washed by Kyoko) grow faded and tattered. Yuki’s box of fresh crayons becomes reduced to small stubs, a detail that magnifies the horrific injustice of their abandonment.
As time passes, the law-abiding Akira loosens his authority over his brood. Tentatively, the children step outside. At first they sneak stealthily past the neighbors, avoiding detection, but before long, they become brazen, laughing and playing, the way children do. When the water is turned off, they bathe in the fountain of a public park. The landlord comes to ask for rent, but when she sees the kids sprawled listless on the floor, she backs away, and surprisingly doesn’t return. Nobody sees these children. Nobody saves them. The suspense continues to build to a tragic, inevitable conclusion, but even then, Koreeda maddeningly does not resolve the kid's untenable situation. Life goes on.
