Movie-Nobody Knows

Nobody Knows (2005) from Japan, is an amazing, but terribly sad, movie. And it has its basis in a true story that actually happened in Japan.

We first see 12-year-old Akira with his mother meeting their new landlord. The mother assures the landlord that Akira is her only child, that the father is away on business most of the time, but Akira is very quiet. And they move in. As the movers go away, both Akira and mother open their large suitcases and out pop two younger kids! And Akira runs to the train station to get yet one more younger sibling.

Mom is not what you would call stable, she is childish...not child-like, but childish. Self-centered, she makes the kids, except for Akira stay in ALL THE TIME, for fear of losing this apartment. She comes home drunk after looking for a new boyfriend, and talks openly about all the kids have a different father. She tells them they should not even want to go to school, and in one scene tells Akira he is selfish because he wants to.

And then she disappears, for several weeks she is gone, and Akira has to keep the house together. She returns for a night, and then is gone again, vowing to return by Christmas. She is with her new boyfriend, who does not even know about these kids. And she won't tell him for fear of losing him. And cries to Akira, "Why can't I have some happiness?"

She leaves some money and is gone, and this somber 12-year-old boy, who seems not to know how to play, must take care of three younger kids.

And you see slowly whatever light he had in his eyes disappear. And the tragic effects of a 12-year-old taking care of three younger kids becomes more an more apparent. the moments of believing that their mom will come back fade even in the younger children, and they know they are left alone, as the money runs out and their gas and electricity and water is cut off.

Nobody Knows is wonderfully well made...really amazing. But in a society especially like Japan, where no one sticks their nose in anyone else's business, that these kids go unnoticed, that their plight remains unseen...is so sad.