Nobody Knows

this is probably the greatest film i've ever seen so incredibly heartbreaking and upsetting, yet also so beautiful. watching these kids slowly realize they've been abandoned absolutely crushed me. especially watching yuki and shigeru. they were too young to fully understand what was happening and it broke my heart to see the life slowly remove itself from their eyes. every time the camera would pan to yuki's face or shigeru looking outside it would hit me with a wave of sadness. seeing yuki's crayons get smaller and seeing kyoko's piano lose a leg would do the same. each scene felt so carefully crafted and constantly reminded me of how they were just kids at the end of the day. kids forced to grow up and care for themselves without any preparation. films rarely make me cry, in fact i can probably count on one hand the amount of films that have made me cry. yet nobody knows somehow made me cry profusely several times. the last hour is an entire rollercoaster to put it lightly. there are times where everything is going well and it's a joy to watch. then suddenly it'll come crashing down and crush you. however, kore-eda somehow finds a way to do this gently and quietly. he somehow makes you feel such strong emotions through subtle choices.  i lastly want to applaud the child actors in this film. they were absolutely phenomenal and kore-eda made them feel so real. the film isn't overly cynical or pessimistic, neither is it glamorous or optimistic. kore-eda found a fine line between the two, resulting in a film that simply put, just portrays how real people are.