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 versetti ★★★★½ 1

  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 Ayush Das Adhikary ★★★★★ 29

  Of abandonment. The painfully gradual realisation of having been left behind. Their cramped apartment houses more people than the landlord is aware of. They don't go to school; they have no friends. The agonizing passage of time turns their once-lively home into a messy and foul-smelling one.

  Clothes bear holes and shoes turn dirty for the eldest boy; the only registered child of the household. Forced to mature beyond his years without a moment's notice. Forced to bear an adult's responsibilities at the age of 12. His siblings experience the vastness of the sky from the confines of four walls; he is the one who gets to experience it as it's meant to be.

  Candles replace lightbulbs. Water stops. Smiles…

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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 elaina ★★★★½ 2

  Nobody Knows how fucking hard I cried

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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 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 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.

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  Review by HANNAH* ★★★★★ 6

  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 Cormac 👑 ★★★★½ 25

  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 Nick ★★★½

  In Nobody Knows, Hirokazu Koreeda channels the spirits of Grave of the Fireflies, exposing the absurdity and cruelty of the adult world, via a harrowing story of children striving to survive in a loveless household. It's a glorious testament to Koreeda's directorial excellence and his social consciousness. Other than its tendency to over-romanticize things, Nobody Knows is simply an impeccable work that's guaranteed to bring the audience to tears.

  Based on real life events in Japan, Nobody Knows chronicles a family of small children's ordeals to survive in a tiny Tokyo apartment after the disappearance of their mother. Koreeda was patient and detailed enough to microscopically document with superb camerawork the calm before the storm, where the happy, sweet facade…

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  Review by DNA cinephile🏳️‍🌈 ★★★★

  Nobody Knows. 2004. Directed by Hirokazu Koreeda.

  Koreeda gave four children who were desolate, alone, and hopeless a spotlight with his pseudo-docu drama. In Nobody Knows (2004) my heart felt like it was being slowly ripped from my chest as the oldest boy (12 years old) Yuma Yadira (Akira Fukushima) attempted to be a brother, father, and care giver for his family after the mother left them in an apartment in Tokyo, Japan.

  Koreeda didn’t shy away from the child like moments of fun versus the times when they did not have any money and were forced to beg to help each other. I will never look at luggage the same way again. It has been permanently changed in my…