The tragic true story behind Hirokazu Kore-eda’s ‘Nobody Knows’
There’s always a significant beauty to the films of Japanese cinema icon Hirokazu Kore-eda, but he put his talent to a bold, emotionally heart-wrenching test with his 2004 drama Nobody Knows. Starring Yuya Yagira, Ayu Kitatura, and Hiei Kimura, Kore-eda’s most stultifying work is also the one most grounded in the actual events of reality.
Nobody Knows follows the lives of four young Japanese siblings – Akira, Kyoko, Shigeru and Yuki – who are left to look after themselves when their mother suddenly abandons them, leaving behind only a small amount of financial resources and no further adult supervision. Akira, the eldest, is left to take care of his brothers and sisters, and the film traverses the ups and downs of their unfortunate reality.
Kore-eda had been inspired to make Nobody Knows after reading of the 1988 Sugamo child abandonment case, an event that truly shocked the Japanese public, prompting outrage throughout the East Asian country. The Sugamo case involved a mother who abandoned her five underage children for around nine months.
In the autumn of 1987, the four children were left in their Tokyo apartment with around ¥50,000 to survive. By the time government officials acted on a tip from the siblings’ landlord the following April, the children were found severely malnourished. They had survived solely on convenience store foods like instant noodles, while one of them had died as a result of an assault by a friend of the eldest brother.
By July, the mother had turned herself in and was indicted for child abandonment. The eldest child was indicted for abandoning his sister’s body, even though he was taken to a care facility instead of serving a sentence considering the circumstances.
Kore-eda’s film is in no way a direct adaptation of the Sugamo case but rather uses its harrowing reality as a jumping-off point for a genuinely touching and heart-breaking project. Bringing out remarkably believable performances from his child-aged cast by using subtly placed cameras and fostering an environment where they could behave freely, Nobody Knows‘ cast gives truly mesmerising and authentic efforts on screen.
The children’s struggle is undoubtedly at the forefront of Kore-eda’s narrative, but so too is the resilience of youth in the face of adversity. The siblings create a tight-knit unit of love and care even amid their isolation and loneliness. Whether scrounging for food on the street or playing games together in moments of rare happiness, Akira, Kyoko, Shigeru and Yuki are depicted in the throes of trauma whilst still trying to claim their personal childhood innocence.
Nobody Knows is a harrowing yet simultaneously beautiful viewing experience in which Kore-eda tragically portrays the loss of youth through circumstances beyond a family’s intentions whilst also exposing the cracks in the systems meant to keep such vulnerable figures free from danger. Drawing inspiration from a truly shocking instance of neglect, the legendary Japanese director weaves an impressive narrative that sticks in the memory long after the credits have rolled, urging audiences to live lives of empathy and compassion.
