Nobody Knows

Hirokazu Koreeda
2004

Painting an un-sensationalized portrait of child abuse (something rare in the cinema), this Japanese picture presents a neglect that is innocuously un-monstrous and quotidian. While no lashing belts or overt emotional cruelty is inflicted upon the four Fukushima kids, the heart of the mother's crime remains, and director Koreeda's relentless scrounging for beauty in the children's freedom gives way to the painful realities of having to collect rainwater and handouts for sustenance, and burying your little sister in a suitcase coffin on the outskirts of Haneda airport. The child actors are the core of this reverse Lord of the Flies with "breadwinning" oldest child Akira, sullen big sister Kyoko, goofball brother Shigeru, and button-cute 'lil sis Yuki. The film mostly concerns itself with Akira's experience which seems a bit unfair considering he's the only child allowed to leave the house while the other three rot away in forced captivity. However, as the increasingly truant mother (played with disturbing ditziness by the singularly named You) becomes more of a ghost the rules are broken as the children freely leave the apartment, plant an ersatz garden on the balcony, and cover the walls in crayon scrawls. For all the visual poetics and meditative tone, it seems like a missed opportunity that Koreeda mostly glosses over the difficulty of surviving without utilities - no water equals no working toilet after all.