There is a scene in Hirokazu Kore-eda‘s Nobody Knows in which the four Fukushima children use empty Cup Noodles and McDonald’s cups to make pots for plants they collected in the park near their home. Seconds after, little Shigeru (Hiei Kimura), the third-born of the pack, runs home after tying up his shoes, leaving behind a full grocery bag. From their apartment’s balcony, the three other kids scream out his name, laughing at his characteristic absent-mindedness. For a viewer that has just caught this moment on their TV, with no context whatsoever, Nobody Knows seems like a movie about childhood bliss. However, for those that have been watching from the start, the scene is bittersweet. On the one hand, it means that the structure of oppression that kept all the Fukushima children apart from the eldest, Akira (Yuya Yagira), locked inside their home is no longer in place. On the other, it also means that the person that kept them dressed and fed is gone for good.
While it might not look like it in the traditional sense of the word, Nobody Knows is a movie about extreme child abuse. Played by YOU, the Japanese star best known to Western audiences for being one of the commentators on Terrace House, Keiko, the mother of the Fukushima children, seems kind and loving towards her offspring. However, she’s also extremely neglectful and cruel. Not only does she forbid them from going to school, Keiko also keeps their existence completely secret from their neighbors, forcing the two youngest to move into their new apartment in suitcases. Only Akira’s existence is known by their neighbors. Her goal is not only to avoid stigma but also to keep living her life as if her children do not exist. Eventually, she leaves them for good, and that’s where Nobody Knows actually starts.
‘Nobody Knows’ Was Hirokazu Kore-Eda’s Introduction to the World
Loosely based on a real-life case that happened in Japan in 1988, in which five children were abandoned by their mother in Nishi-Sugamo, Nobody Knows was Kore-eda’s de facto introduction to the world back in the mid-2000s, long before he directed masterpieces like Shoplifters and Monster, for which he is better known today. Acclaimed by critics and audiences alike at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, the movie was selected by Japan as its entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 2005 Academy Awards. Sadly, it did not get nominated. However, that doesn’t mean the movie didn’t get its fair share of awards. Back in Cannes, for instance, in a year Quentin Tarantino presided over the jury, Yuya Yagira won the prize for Best Actor at just 14 years old. So, yeah, while Kore-eda’s name had already begun to make the rounds in film circles in the 90s, when his Maborosi got a cinematography award at the Venice Film Festival, it was Nobody Knows that actually elevated his status to that of a globally revered director.
And Nobody Knows is a masterpiece in its own right. Boasting a 92% critics’ score at Rotten Tomatoes (and a 93% audience score!), it is easily one of the best films directed by Kore-eda. With just a tinge of melodrama, particularly in the final moments, in which the theme song “Hoseki” plays over Akira and Saki’s (Hanae Kan) journey back home, the film is a raw, realistic examination of how a world ruled by children actually works. For starters, they have no money. But, most importantly, they have no one to make sure they are taken care of.
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This “no one” means Keiko, of course, but we could just as easily be talking about the children’s fathers or their neighbors or even the people that see them walking by, running their daily errands. In a scene, the manager of the convenience store in which the kids get most of their food sees Akira wearing a dirty, torn T-shirt in the middle of the school day and simply asks him if he’s going out for a picnic with Saki, a high schooler that the children befriend. In another, their landlady opens the door to the now trash-filled apartment and simply walks away after asking Saki, Kyoko (Ayu Kitaura), and Yuki (Momoko Shimizu) if they are Akira’s cousins. No help comes their way, not even from people that can clearly see that there’s something wrong. No one knows about their existence because no one cares enough to know, not because they can’t literally see the children roaming around.
The Abuse in ‘Nobody Knows’ Goes Way Beyond the Family Level
What Kore-eda tells us is that the abuse in a case such as Nishi-Sugamo’s child abandonment goes way beyond the family level. There’s a whole society that is structured in such a way that it turns a blind eye to children in distress even as they are hiding in plain sight. And this doesn’t apply just to the Fukushima kids. Saki’s introduction to the story is key to understanding what Nobody Knows is actually about. Bullied in school, Saki is completely ignored by the adults around her except when they want something from her. We never see her parents, and there doesn’t seem to be a soul in the world that cares about the fact that she just keeps skipping school over and over again.
Nobody Knows is a movie that is not afraid to point fingers. However, it doesn’t just accuse Keiko of abandoning her kids; it accuses all of us. Therefore, the movie is not necessarily an easy watch. Though it tells its story in an extreme matter-of-fact way, the film can be utterly heartbreaking. Still, it is still a movie that deserves to be watched—this is perhaps precisely because of how unrelenting it is.