Nobody Knows

Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda (also known for Maborosi (1995) and Our Little Sister (2015)) breaks our hearts with Nobody Knows (2004), a film about the abandonment of four children who do what little they can to survive in a tiny Tokyo apartment, in Ota-ku it seems, as their dreams are slowly suffocated by neglect and desperate circumstances.

It begins with a young mother and her eldest son, Akira, arriving at the building they’re about to move into, and they seem happy, normal. The two youngest children arrive next, secretly delivered in suitcases, and the older sister, Kyoko, comes separately by train. At that point we know something is terribly wrong. We also see the family making do with what they have, and so we remain hopeful, for a time. The children each have different fathers. They're not allowed to attend school. And only Akira can go outside, since somebody has to buy groceries and pay the bills. The mother stays out all night and often doesn’t return at all. Eventually she disappears for months without a word, leaving the children to fend for themselves.

The film, based on the real-life Sugamo child abandonment case, will make you cry. Kore-eda is masterful at using everyday objects to build the narrative and stir emotion, whether it’s a filthy toy piano with a broken leg or a struggling plant in a muddy, cracked Cup Noodle container. But the main reason to watch this is Yuya Yagira’s performance. The depth of his expressions and how he conveys so much with his eyes as a twelve-year-old actor is remarkable. He became the first Japanese actor to win Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival, and also the youngest ever to receive the award.