Dare mo shiranai (2004)

User Rating:

8.1/10   

Director:

Hirokazu Koreeda

Writer:

Hirokazu Koreeda (writer)

Release Date:

21 October 2004 (Hong Kong)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

In Tokyo, the reckless single mother Keiko moves to a small apartment with her twelve years old son Akira Fukushima and hidden in the luggage...

Plot Keywords:

Apartment | Luggage | Home Alone | Crayon | Tokyo Japan

Awards:

13 wins & 7 nominations

Cast

Yûya Yagira	...	Akira Fukushima
Ayu Kitaura	...	Kyoko
Hiei Kimura	...	Shigeru
Momoko Shimizu	...	Yuki
Hanae Kan	...	Saki
You	...	Keiko, the mother
Kazuyoshi Kushida	...	Yoshinaga, The Landlord
Yukiko Okamoto	...	Eriko Yoshinaga
Sei Hiraizumi	...	Mini-market Manager
Ryo Kase	...	Mini-market Employee
Takako Tate	...	Mini-market teller
Yuichi Kimura	...	Sugihara (Taxi Driver)
Kenichi Endo	...	Pachinko Parlor Employee
Susumu Terajima	...	Baseball coach

Also Known As:

Nobody Knows (International: English title) (USA) (literal English title)
Daremo shiranai - Nobody knows (Japan) (poster title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for mature thematic elements and some sexual references.

Runtime:

141 min | Argentina:141 min (Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente)

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

Sweden:11 | Taiwan:R-12 | Japan:U | Hungary:16 | Portugal:M/12 (DVD rating) | Italy:T | Hong Kong:IIA | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Brazil:Livre | Finland:K-11 | Germany:6 | Netherlands:MG6 | Singapore:PG | South Korea:All | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | UK:12A | USA:PG-13

Filming Locations:

Tokyo, Japan

Company:

Bandai Visual Company

Trivia:

Hirokazu Koreeda wrote the first draft of the screenplay fifteen years before the film was actually made. At that point it was titled "Wonderful Sunday" and unfolded from Akira's subjective point of view, ending with a fantasy sequence in which the entire family (the children, the mother and the various fathers) are reunited for a Sunday outing.

Quotes:

Kyoko: Guess Yuki grew.

Movie Connections:

Features Sonic the Hedgehog (1991/I) (VG)

Soundtrack:

Houseki

Nasal Whisper

No doubt there are others I haven't heard of, but for me Dare mo shiranai forms the latest entry in a trilogy of Japanese films based on true incidents involving abusive parents: Oshima's 1969 Shonen (Boy), Nomura's 1978 Kichiku (The Demon) are the others. Shonen I saw long ago and isn't available. Kichiku I watched barely two weeks ago. Nomura's camera tends to accuse, while Oshima's, if I recall, just watches, miming cinema vérité. Kore-eda, like Oshima, tends -- I mean this literally not pejoratively -- to voyeurism.

Knowing the story too well already from difficult-to-dodge early reviews and distributor publicity, I couldn't help seeing as ironic the early scenes in which the children's mother Keiko is still a factor. Her voice an almost cute nasal whisper, something like that of a child boisterously ignoring a cold (compare the whisper-singing actress in Swallowtail Butterfly and Picnic or I don't know which Karie Kahimi cut (but my favorites are all on Larmes de Crocodile)), she comes across as a really great mother. The family may be on the outs, sneaking, two or three gone fetal inside suitcases, into a one-child apartment, but it's a family of five, not four victims and a demon. The "unpacking" of the children looks clever, magical. It's fairytale stuff. So is the chatter, the family life, those first nights especially, in the new apartment. Keiko's one of them and their mother in charge of them, all at once. They may complain but they clearly admire something in her, and obey her to the letter. They've learned from her a self-reliance that so astounds throughout the film, that its slow breakdown is that much more shattering. Not just their compliance, but the skill with which they do without her during her increasingly long absences testify to what she's done for and with them. How many children you know could survive this well for this long in these circumstances?

Or is what I'm seeing just the actress You's skill with the nonprofessional child actors? I think probably it's both, You and Keiko, and that Kore-eda knew and used this.

There's going to be too much written here about this film (and on the IMDb message board look for some really knowledgeable comments by YukoK that make my top of the head rambling near worthless by comparison). I try never to repeat or preempt others' contributions, but wondered how many would register Keiko's mother-skills.

Kore-eda doesn't shy from deconstructing the closest thing he has here to a protagonist, eldest son Akira. After Keiko's whisper-voice goes slowly sinister and collapses finally into written notes, we watch his will and integrity falter even as he attracts the sympathy of the shop girl and cast-out Saki. I don't think there's a deliberately sentimental shot in the entire film. The achingly symbolic garden that mimics Akira's decline and the nighttime trek to the burial site may come closest, but both are forgivable and may have been unavoidable. If you haven't already seen Nobody Knows, prepare yourself for a fine ten-minute cry.

See my comment at Distance (2001) for a snippet of Kore-eda apologetic in person.