Nobody Knows (Dare mo shiranai)

I bought quite a few DVDs from Yesasia few weeks back and still trying to go through them all whenever I have free time. I probably will bring them along with me to New Zealand, so I can watch in the hotel room at night. Anyway, few people have already mentioned this movie to me and from what they told me, I gathered it must be a very beautiful depressing story. So finally I had the opportunity to watch the movie last week, and is a very very sad depressing Japanese movie called "Nobody Know", AKA in Jap "Dare Mo Shiranai".

Right at the beginning of the movie, it's stated that the movie is purely fictional. As fictional as it might sound, but it is no stranger to most Japanese because the movie is actually based on a true story that happened in Tokyo back in 1988, also known as "The Affair of the Four Abandoned Children of Nishi-Sugamo". Before I get into the real story, let's talk about the movie itself.

The movie opens with a mother, Keiko, and her 10yo son, Akira, clutching a pink suitcase on the monorail, moving into a suburban apartment. And soon we found out that they are actually trying to sneak in 3 more of her children into the new tiny apartment by using the suitcases, and the elder daughter who had to wait at the train station till night time when no one is watching. As the reason why they doing so is because all the children were illegitmiate and didn't file for birth certification, which means they will straight to the orphanage if the government finds out. So basically the four children can't get out of the apartment except the eldest son, Akira who allows to go out to do some shopping. And no loud noise is allowed in the house as may get them evicted. In the mean time, the childish, selfish, ignorant mother has found another new love and wants to go and visit him in Osaka from time to time. She just left a stack of cash in Akira's hand for the bills and food and make sure he looks after the brother and sisters. And Keiko promises she won't be away for long time, but first time she was late home, the second time she was almost a month late, and then she never come back again. So basically the children become the prisoners of the apartment, and the children start disobeying and forgetting all the house rules, start wandering outside, and bringing street kids home to play computer games. Finally they ran out of money, gas, electricity and water being cut off, and nothing to eat, no water to drink, but in such desperate situation, they still managed to survive and stay together as a family.


As the result of negligence from the mother, Akira portraits a very strong independant kid, who has such a big responsibility to look after the younger ones but you cant help yourself but realising he is still only a 10yo kid who likes to play at the playground, baseball, and make friends. Shigeru, the younger son, he is probably my favorite character in the movie. He is soo innocent, childish, funny and naughty, kinda reminds of myself when I was a kid. This poor kid just want to go out and do what normally kids do, pluck flower on the side of the road, play remote car with friends. It is heart wrenching to see him standing in front of a group of kids having a good time eating ice cream and he couldn;t afford one but just watch. Man, I know the feeling myself... Kyoko, the elder daughter, who likes her mum alot even she knows the mum has done wrong and not looking after them. She's been saving the money for a piano when she grows up but she knows survival is more important and given up the savings for food instead. Yuki, she is the youngest of them all, she knows nothing about the outside world, everything is new and exciting to her. She will definitely capture your heart with her innocent sweet smile, and her squeaky teddy bear slippers.

There is no happy ending in this movie, so prepare for a big box of tissue. Despite this is a very sad story, but it is a very cute story. Everytime you see the kids playing in the park, doing what kids do, along with a happy piano tune, it kinds of bring a smile to your face. I still do remember sometimes I will go through all the coin slots on a public phone and the vending machines for some spare change so I can buy the toy that I want. Something simple like this definitely brings back some of my childhood memories. It is a MUST movie for everyone, and Akira is only 10yo, and he already won the Best Actor at the Cannes film festival, I can't find any reason why not to watch it.

If you are interested in the real story that happened back in 1988: First, there were originally five children, two boys and three girls. One of the boys died from some illness; but because none of the five children officially existed (she had not reported the births of any of them, thus none of them went to school), she simply wrapped the body up in some plastic sheets with some deodorizer and hid it in a closet.

When she left her children to live with her new lover, the oldest boy was 14, and he had three younger sisters, aged 7, 3 and 2.

The older boy took to bringing over two friends ("A" and "B" in the report) he'd made, but these kids were a lot nastier than the ones depicted in the film. Ultimately, one of them (B) became angry at the youngest girl for eating some food he'd brought over, and beat her up, ultimately killing her.

The oldest son and friend (A) packed the body up and took it to some mountains nearby, and buried it in a shallow grave. This was in April 1988.

In July of that year the landlord finally realized that the apartment seemed to be occupied only by children, and called the police, who found the two remaining girls badly undernourished. Searching the apartment, they discovered the corpse that the mother had hidden.

The story was covered very heavily by the mass media; and the mother, seeing this on the news, wondered if it was all about her children, and turned herself in to the police.

There's more, but that's the essence of it. The eldest boy did come off pretty well overall, taking care of his sisters etc, until the end, when things got pretty grim, money was scarce, and the story assumed a "Lord of the Flies" kind of aspect. He was not in the room when his sister died, but he knew what his friend was capable of.

Story :

Popcorn Level :

TOTAL : 9.5/10