Nobody Knows (Dare mo shiranai) is a charming Japanese film about how four children survive and depend on each other when their mother abandons them.
Twelve-year-old actor Yagira Yuya took the Best Actor Award in Cannes last year for his role as Akira, a boy taking charge of his siblings after their mother abandons them, leaving them to fend for themselves. He beat Tony Leung, who was nominated for his role in “2046”, to the award. And deservedly so. Yuya puts in a sensitive and touching performance as a precocious 12-year-old, taking care of his three younger siblings by cooking for them, shopping for groceries, paying the bills etc. The other three children also put in wonderful performances which just tugs at your heartstrings.
The film was inspired by the real events surrounding four children, each fathered by a different man, who were abandoned by their mother and lived on their own for six months. Your heart really goes out to the children in the course of the film. Not allowed to step out of the apartment after being instructed by their mother not to do so for fear of them being discovered by the landlord and being driven away, the three younger children amuse themselves in the small flat by playing with their toys all day. Kyoko, the second oldest at 10, tinkles on her toy piano all day, wishing she could go to school.
When Akira goes in search of the different men his mother has slept with to ask them for money after he runs out of it, you feel so sorry for him. When he plays parent to his own mother (who seems to suffer from the Peter Pan syndrome), your heart all but breaks. In the last meal he has with his mother before she abandons him, he asks her when she’ll be sending him and his siblings to school. He asks if she has told the man she is seeing about her children. He then accuses her of being selfish when he learns she hasn’t done so. It’s so sad when children are made to grow up way before they have to.
As with many Japanese films, there’s an understated charm in this gem of a film. Though it drags on a little longer than necessary, it is nonetheless a film worth watching.