Popular reviews

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  Review by fizzybenilyn ★★★★★ 7

  To make something so beautiful, so tender out of something so tragic and heartbreaking takes a real skill. Hirokazu Koreeda has perfected it.

  Not since Elephant Man has a film had this much of an emotional effect on me, it actually made me feel quite sick in my stomach in the last half hour and in the last 15 minutes or so I realised I was holding my breath.

  The young actors have left me gobsmacked at how flawlessly they performed, they say very little but their every action makes you empathise with them that little bit more. Akira's scenes when he remembered how to behave like a child again were particularly touching but when the sucker punch comes, the…

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  Review by Mike N ★★★★ 5

  A heartbreaking tale of abandonment and survival, Nobody Knows takes a more extreme view on the mistreatment of children; but it's one that remains grounded in reality, showing how neglect can take away a childhood in an instant and replace it with experiences that no child should be subjected to.

  Nobody Knows opens with the family in question moving into a new apartment. Only the mother and Akira, the protagonist, are known about by the other residents and only Akira is allowed outside. Even though the mother acts irresponsible, having had the four children via four different men and not allowing them to go to school, the family are content and happy as they are shown eating dinner and playing…

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  Review by versetti ★★★★½

  I appreciate Koreeda because he's the most mature, steady handed, subtle director I've ever seen. He will never try to create melodrama, instead he will quietly and gently break your heart.

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  Review by Jaime Rebanal ★★★★★

  I'll apologize beforehand in regards to what one will find themselves reading if it drives away from the film itself, but the moment a thought comes by when I want to talk about the impact of Hirokazu Kore-eda's Nobody Knows upon myself, I cannot help but tear up, and within a word I write about what has been captured here, and it affects me in a manner that almost felt so personal to myself. But before I start rambling, it is already hard enough trying to find where I should begin when I want to talk about Nobody Knows, one that I find so difficult to revisit because these feelings pain me so much. Whenever I come back towards my…

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  Review by ˗ˏˋ Liam ˊˎ˗ ★★★★½ 4

  creeps up on you and quietly shatters your heart into a million tiny pieces ........... kore-eda u got me again u got me GOOD 😢

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  Review by elaina ★★★★½ 2

  Nobody Knows how fucking hard I cried

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  Review by Cormac 👑 ★★★★½ 23

  My heart weeps for these children. Sometimes it’s all too easy to forget that not everyone is so fortunate to have had parents that care. Care to take an interest, to show up, to actually be there when it matters and when it all goes down. Afterwards, upon finding out it’s based on actual events, what suffuses is a mist of anger. My blood boils for these (real, live) children.

  Nobody Knows can claim Hirokazu Kore-eda’s most conventional narrative to date and nobody would put up much of a fight, but don’t get it twisted. This one isn’t for the faint of heart. Though it has no scenes of overt violence, and barely a tear is shed, what gives way…

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  Review by HANNAH* ★★★★★ 5

  all the simple joys and the complex frustrations.
  all the ringing laughters and the silent cries.
  all the hidden anxiety and the false serenity.
  all the meaningful stares and the fake smiles.

  a few hours after watching this film, i am sat silently, still at a lost for words. 誰も知らない is a film so brutally honest you wouldn’t wish to have seen it. i still can’t process what i’ve seen. i loved it but can’t see myself rewatching it anytime soon.

  i am angry crying for kids who were stripped of childhood, forced to grow beyond their age, and deprived of a future. throughout the film, you can see how the Fukushima siblings slowly lose their decent life. from Akira’s shoes…

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  Review by 🌼🌻 Graham 🍁❄️ ★★★★

  What a crushing film this is. Hirokazu Kore-eda has an uncanny knack of extracting painfully raw performances from his cast that you simply cannot fail to connect with.

  In Nobody Knows, he drives home a couple of key messages regarding the ability of adults to dispose of their parental accountabilities in an attempt to find their own happiness, and the sheer resilience of young people. It's a tough balance, and goes some way to confirming that not everyone is cut out to be a parent, and even if they initially were, the complexities of life can easily change that.

  With a runtime made up almost exclusively of scenes delivered by young children, this could easily have become a soppy and…

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  Review by Varghese ★★★★★ 1

  "I'm not allowed to be happy?''

  How can your own flesh and blood say that???

  Koreeda channels Ozu aka the Master of Simplicity and pays tribute to Hitchcock in a slow burn thriller sequence which had me in knots.Had this been in the hands of another director it would have turned into loud and cliched consequences but instead it becomes a restrained,effective and thoughtful experience. Well deserved winner of Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival!

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  Review by The Black Lodge ★★★ 5

  Filmwelt Filmclub - Nobody Knows - ausgewählt von Vanessa
  
  Nobody Knows ist ein ruhiges Drama, für welches man Konzentration und Willen mitbringen muss. Der Film Hirokazu Kore-edas, bekannt durch den hervorragenden Shoplifters, dauert 140 Minuten und lässt sich somit extrem viel Zeit. Wenn man sich aber auf Nobody Knows einlassen kann, dann erhält man einen extrem realistischen Einblick in eine melancholische und traurige Geschichte aus Tokio. Kore-edas Film handelt nämlich von einem zwölfjährigen Jungen, der sich um seine jüngeren Geschwister kümmern muss, nachdem seine Mutter verschwindet.

  Diese Geschichte wird erst durch die phänomenalen Kinderdarsteller wirklich lebendig. Vor allem Yuya Yagira als Protagonist Akira bleibt einem im Gedächtnis. Die Kinder sind einfach Kinder, was vermutlich die Authentizität von Nobody Knows am…

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  Review by Hunter ᴴᴰ ★★★★★

  “I’m not interested in creating heroes, superheroes, or antiheroes. I simply want to look at people as they are.”

  (Quote from Hirokazu Kore-eda)

  Enough said.