Nobody Knows
Directed & Written by: Kore-eda Hirokazu
Starring: Yagira Yuya, Kitaura Ayu, Kimura Hiei, Shimizu Momoko, Kan Hanae, You
Country: Japan

           

Two suitcases

Reviewed by Hal Gray

Living Out Of (And In) A Suitcase.

The down side to winter is, it's the dog days of live-action features when we're fed meager spoonfuls of quality cinema. The upside is, this is when the majority of ‘small films' and documentaries are released as they try to find an audience. Born Into Brothels, Inside Deep Throat, Bukowski: Born Into This and Tarnation are notable recently distributed docs. Arguably, the Japanese feature by auteur Kore-eda Hirokazu, Nobody Knows, is the small film with the biggest reputation. (For example, the lead, Yagira Yuya as Akira won the Best Actor Laurel at Cannes 2004.)

Does Nobody Knows deserve the accolades? It does if they hand out awards for frustration and anti-climatics.

First the story: One of those ‘based on true events' pictures that now inundate the screens, Nobody Knows is about four brothers and sisters—aged 5 to 12—who are abandoned by their mother to fend for themselves in a small apartment in Tokyo. When we first meet them they are being smuggled into the apartment by their kind but self-indulgent mother. (The landlords think she has one child.) This is not the first lodging they've seen nor are they unfamiliar with their mother's peripatetic quirks. She disappears from time to time and no sooner are they ensconced and she goes over the ground rules: no noise and no going outside, even on the balcony, she decamps leaving her oldest boy, Akira, in charge. He is the model of decorum and self-sacrifice.

The three youngest children are confined to this claustrophobic world. (Anyone who has a rambunctious and energetic 6-year old boy can only imagine.) Akira's claustrophobia, however, is born of responsibility. He can leave the apartment to shop and travel the working-class streets. And when the money gets low, he searches out a father or two—all the kids have different fathers—for a few yen. Mom does come back, but only to bring presents and leave some money before she's off again. As the months crawl by, Akira finally has to accept she's not coming back this time.

And he cracks, although it's hard to tell from his inscrutable face. Gradually the social structure that they've built starts to collapse as the money runs out. Bills go unpaid and the light and water are cut off. They all have to take to the streets during the day to survive. (To make this more effective, the action—and the shooting schedule—took place over a year, so the physical changes we see the children going through are not due to make up. Purportedly, Agira's change of voice and hint of a mustache is real.)

So why does Nobody Knows miss the mark? Simply, there's little drama. There are hints of it; in fact oodles of possibilities are (seemingly?) carefully laid out shot after shot and scene after scene. I'll mention just one of a dozen set-ups that fails to materialize:

The first 15 minutes of the film are spent underlining that ‘nobody is to know' there's four kids living in the apartment. Shigeru, the 6-year old, is told he can't ever go out on the balcony for fear the landlords will see him. Kids being kids, eventually Shigeru drops a ball of Plasticine out on the balcony. He tries everything to get it back short of stepping out there. And that's it. He gives up and nothing happens. In fact, when the landlords (at about the 2-hour mark) finally discover the disaster area the place has become they do n-o-t-h-I-n-g. Or rather, the director does nothing with it.

There are many more situations that don't pay off in a similar fashion and the film—running at a deadly 140 minutes—dwindles away into an insipid non-resolution. It made for frustrating viewing. It should be noted that the reason for stating a film is ‘based on a true story' is so you can dramatize it. That didn't happen here.

Director Kore-eda certainly shot enough coverage to build the mood for three movies. Most of it is wonderful. Close ups of feet, hands, eyes, faces, inanimate objects that speak of the loneliness of the human condition. Shots of the back streets of Tokyo are a revelation. But, of course, it takes more than atmosphere to tell a story.

The opinions expressed by our reviewers are their own and do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Publisher, the Editor or staff of zineCAT. If you have a comment please email it to info@icatmedia.com