Nobody Knows

Nobody Knows is one of the most crushing films that I've ever seen. So much of this film is spent wallowing in melancholy, wading through the trash, and yet it never gets too hard to continue. Because seeing this world through the eyes of a child, It feels like there is always a silver lining, a light at the end of the tunnel. One of the few movies to truly make me shed tears, theres just some brutal scenes in here. Theres bits of the movie where you know Akira is making the wrong decision. You're begging, yelling at the screen for him to stop. And yet you understand. Because this film is just so real. Sure, it is loosely based on a true story (which is really even more horrific than the film), but the naturalism here comes from Kore-eda's mastery of the camera, and of the pen. This is truly his magnum opus, and signifies him truly coming into his own as a director. While the precursor films After Life, Distance, & Maborosi are all nice, and I'm especially fond of Distance, Nobody Knows is just leaps and bounds over those three. After this he rattled off classics yearly. Like Father Like Son, I Wish, Still Walking, After The Storm, SHOPLIFTERS. I like to think of Kore-Eda's career in three eras. There's pre Nobody Knows, and then theres everything between it and The Truth. And thats one of, if not the greatest stretch of filmmaking of all time. But back to Nobody Knows. It's just such an emotionally affecting film, from start to finish. I can really only put An Elephant Sitting Still next to it in terms of emotional brutality. Every character is engineered to perfectly toy with your emotions. The mother is repugnant in her neglect, the young children adored in their innocence, Akira empathetic in his tragedy, all the different fathers condemnable in their distance. Theres a scene in this film where Akira takes his youngest sister to the train station, where their mother promised she would be back for her birthday. She doesnt show, and the two walk home alone, the little girls toy slippers squeaking on the barren road. It's here they see the monorail go past, way above them to the airport. Akira promises her that one day he'll take her on the monorail to the airport, a promise that only gets more depressing throughout the remaining 50 minutes of the film. Nobody Knows is Kore-Eda at his best in every aspect of film. My favourite movie of all time.