Nobody Knows

[pegkerr]

Last night the girls and I watched a movie that kiramartin recommended, Nobody Knows, which is still haunting me a day later. It is a Japanese movie, a fictionalization of a story that caused a great scandal in that country in 1988. A single mother with four children with four different fathers abandoned them in Tokyo apartment. The only child that the landlords knew about, who was allowed to go outside, was the twelve year old boy, who cared for his half-siblings when his mother disappeared. No one knew about them: the births of the three "hidden" children were unregistered, and none of them went to school. The children lived alone for six months, with the oldest struggling to keep the younger ones fed and safe, but gradually their utilities were shut off, and their struggle became truly grim, until the final tragedy.

This is really a haunting film. The director used nonprofessional children actors, and the performances he coaxed from them was so amazing that the twelve year old won the Cannes Award for best actor. As one critic notes, you really do come to love these children, and long to know what happens to them after the last frozen frame (was that last freeze frame a reference to The 400 Blows, perhaps?)

Does anyone know the fate, after they were discovered, of the four abandoned children of Nishi-Sugamo?

Highly recommended.

Edited to add: You can see the trailer here (at the top of the frame). It gives a good sense of what I am talking about.

Comments

[wintersweet.livejournal.com]

It seems we'd have to read Japanese to get the real story. There are some additiona (depressing) details here toward the bottom:
http://www.shisso.org/archives/000645.html
As for afterwards, I'd assume an orphanage or something.

I suspect I'll avoid this movie for the same reasons I still haven't seen "Grave of the Fireflies."

[callunav.livejournal.com]

Oh...

You know, I'm usually really, really anti-spoiler. But I think I'm going to stay very far away from this because it would push way too many buttons for me. So if you felt okay with it, I would actually really appreciate a brief explanation of the ending. Now I'm going to be wondering, you see.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Mmm. Let's put it this way: the oldest boy did not achieve his goal of keeping all the children safe.

What was so interesting about the movie was how much it got into the children's world. They understand so little about the world that not only is the oldest wary of involving adults for fear that they would be split up, but they are so innocent, they really do not know or understand how to reach out for help.

The thing is, it is also an incredibly sweet movie, about these poor neglected children who made a life, their own little world, for each other. As one critic pointed out, if this movie had been made in America, it would end with the mother being caught and punished, put in the slammer, and the children saved. But this movie, instead, is focused entirely on the children's point of view, and that the filmaker entirely captures: their devotion to each other, their wonder at a little plant pushing through the concrete, their patience. The director said that what caught his attention, what made him want to do the movie, was a quotation by the oldest girl made after the children were found: she said that her brother had been so sweet. And it is like that. They are so guileless, so innocent, and they try so, so hard. It is sad, but it is also a movie about resilience, and the will to live.

I think it is worth seeing. I will remember it for a very long time, but I think I will be the better for it.

[callunav.livejournal.com]

I believe you. It sounds like the kind of thing I could recommend to others.

The problem is for me that I wouldn't be able to watch it for itself, I'd keep having my own associations rising up and slamming into me, making for inappropriate rage and inability to perceive the movie in its own light. I've had that happen before; it's not fair to the book or movie, frustrating for anyone trying to discuss the book or movie with me, and no fun for me. So I'm trying to have a learning curve. (About a year and a half ago, I read A Child Called 'It,' which I think is probably a very good book, just not a very good book for me to read.)

Thanks for the somewhat eliptical spoiler. It's enough for me to stop gnawing at it, which is what I wanted, so I do sincerely thank you. And I'm glad you saw something that was a good thing for you to see.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

You can see the trailer here (at the top of the frame). It gives a good sense of what I am talking about.

[callunav.livejournal.com]

I think maybe I'm not expressing this whole business of triggers very well. This is the sort of thing that can mess me up for many days, and at the moment, that would not be profitable for me. I don't really want any contact with it, even though I'm glad to know it exists for other people to see.

In any case, I thank you (sincerely) for wanting to share something that was meaningful to you. Perhaps it would help to think of it as though you'd just had someone serve you a really interesting and startlingly good cheese-based dish, and me as someone with a milk allergy; I can enjoy your appreciation of it, but it wouldn't have the same effect on me.


It sounds like a really good movie, though.

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

Right there with you.

[kokopoko.livejournal.com]

It sounds like you and I unfortunately share a messed up childhood. Just reading about this movie is tough.

[darkthirty.livejournal.com]

In my 2005 movie list, this one came out on top, as the only movie this scoring over 9 out of 10. (see http://darkthirty.livejournal.com/36303.html#cutid1)
The filmmaker intentionally made this movie a kind of prayer, in a way, cause the news story behind it is far bleaker - the movie was dark enough, and yet, there was definitely light in it, though not the light from the airport...

[fangexploring.livejournal.com]

Things like this are still happening in Japan I think. Last year I read that a mother and her child starved to death in their apartment in Tokyo.

The images in the movie stayed with me for days too.

[takumashii.livejournal.com]

I read Japanese haltingly, but after I saw the movie I tried to look up what I could about the true story.

The true story's worse than the movie.

As to what happened to the children, I think that nobody knows. The oldest had criminal charges against him which were then dropped, I believe. I think that the children's names were never released to the media, and were hidden from the media afterwards--because wouldn't it be horrible to carry that weight with you your whole life, not just in terms of what happened to you, but in terms of everyone looking at you and thinking, "Oh, THAT girl."

I'm leaving space below because this could very well be triggery, and attempting to camouflage the text so that you have to highlight it to read it.

[takumashii.livejournal.com]

Oh well--I tried to leave spoiler space.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

[wildflower150.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the recommendation I will go and see if I can find it at the rental store!

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

If you see it, let me know what you think.

[wildflower150.livejournal.com]

We asked at one of the local video stores last night and they had heard of it but didn't have it in. I will have to call around I guess and see if anyone has it.

[romancoat.livejournal.com]

I've watched very few Japanese films (mainly Akira Kurosawa), and read very few books, but the ones I've read (Haruki Murakami, Banana Yoshimoto) have fascinated me. The use of language is different, it comes across as mystical and lyrical somehow. I know they've been translated, but they were translated well. If you have other authors and movies to recommend, please do!

[(Anonymous)]

Hi
I just read an interview with the producer of the film. He stated that the events did occur but his movie was fictionalized. The genders and ages were changed as well. I tried to find anything on the true events but I was unable to. I know that in Asian societies especially Japanese saving face is paramount but--if that was his motivation why would he produce the movie. Maybe he did sensationalize the events--Lets hope for the children's sake.

If you want to see the article go to Indiewire.com and put in Nobody Knows and it will come up. 3 or 4th one down.