Synopsis
In a small Tokyo apartment, twelve-year-old Akira must care for his younger siblings after their mother leaves them and shows no sign of returning.
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Cast
- Yuya YagiraAkira
- Ayu KitauraKyoko
- Hiei KimuraShigeru
- Momoko ShimizuYuki
- Hanae KanSaki
- YOUKeiko
- Ryo KaseHiroyama Jun
- Kazuyoshi KushidaYoshinaga
- Yukiko OkamotoEriko Yoshinaga
- Sei HiraizumiTsukasa Nakanobu
Recommendations
- 100
Entertainment Weekly
Yagira's performance is so extraordinary, it won him the best actor prize at the 2004 Cannes film festival. - 90
Chicago Reader
Yuya Yagira, winner of the best actor award at Cannes this year, is superb as the protective eldest child; he and his other nonprofessional costars are quietly heartbreaking. - 90
The New York Times
Not for the faint of heart, though it has no scenes of overt violence, and barely a tear is shed. It is also strangely thrilling, not only because of the quiet assurance of Mr. Kore-eda's direction, but also because of his alert, humane sense of sympathy. - 88
New York Post
Kore-eda presents the deeply moving story in a documentary style that is both gentle and compelling. - 80
Variety
Kore-eda sketches the inner, spiritual and emotional lives of the children with subtlety and sensitivity, delivering the goods after a seemingly directionless first half. - 80
The New Yorker
I certainly came out of Nobody Knows feeling numb; only later, reflecting on the fact that the movie was inspired by a true story, did it occur to me that the numbness could have been deliberate, and that what suffused this picture was a mist of anger. - 80
Village Voice
It's a heart-sundering vision of preadolescent helplessness that rivals passages of "Landscape in the Mist" and "Ponette." - 80
The A.V. Club
Loosely structured around four seasons, Nobody Knows unfolds in a long series of episodes that slowly progress from lightly comic to bracingly sad as the situation deteriorates.
