Rotten Tomatoes
Cancel Movies Tv shows FanStore News Showtimes

Nobody Knows

Play trailer Poster for Nobody Knows PG-13 Released Feb 4, 2005 2h 21m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
92% Tomatometer 92 Reviews 93% Popcornmeter 10,000+ Ratings
Preteen Akira Fukushima (Yûya Yagira) and his young siblings have been abandoned by their mother, Keiko (You). Keiko, who has moved in with a new lover, has left Akira in charge of his brother, two sisters and a whole apartment, with little money and food to see them through. Akira and the other children, who were never enrolled in school, struggle to survive without basic amenities as they cope with a strange, solitary existence in a Tokyo apartment building.

Where to Watch

Nobody Knows

Nobody Knows

What to Know

Critics Consensus

Tragic and haunting, a beautifully heart-wrenching portrait of child abandonment.

Read Critics Reviews

Critics Reviews

View All (92) Critics Reviews
David Parkinson Empire Magazine Rarely has a kid's-eye view of the adult world been captured with such innocence and insight. Rated: 4/5 Apr 1, 2006 Full Review Marjorie Baumgarten Austin Chronicle The rare film that successfully tells its tale of childhood from the children's point of view. Rated: 4/5 Apr 23, 2005 Full Review Terry Lawson Detroit Free Press At its heart, Nobody Knows is a sweet salute to the tenacity and courage of children who are blithely mistreated by adults who should know better and probably do. Rated: 3/4 Mar 18, 2005 Full Review David Lamble Bay Area Reporter Nobody Knows substitutes an emotional sucker-punch of too much knowledge and no easy fixes. May 7, 2020 Full Review Tom Dawson The List Although it's perhaps overlong, Nobody Knows is shot with Ozu-esque beauty over four seasons and exceptionally acted by its non-professional cast. Rated: 4/5 Apr 23, 2019 Full Review Catherine Graham Santa Cruz Sentinel Yuya Yogira is remarkable, a screen debut as exciting as Jean Pierre Leaud's in The 400 Blows. Rated: B Mar 22, 2019 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (905) audience reviews
Eze Q It could have been a bit shorter, excellent movie Rated 4 out of 5 stars 11/16/24 Full Review hamid reza g An admirable film with very beautiful plans and a perceptive director who has been able to create realism with a film. The film is very effective with few dialogues but with strong images and little and wise music. The film is in praise of childhood and the story of four children who become victims in an irresponsible and passive world. Although the story of the film is sad, the strength of the film is that it is full of effort, sacrifice and hope. At the end of the film, the image shows the four children happily going home after shopping, and the image is fixed. Although the director wants to make us think of children and childhood, I personally like the movement of children in the depth of the picture towards the future. The movie should be seen and enjoyed. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 04/10/23 Full Review william d There's no conclusion here, no redemption, just four kids living in misery for 2+ hours. Judging by its high RT score many people find that poignant and compelling. I just found it depressing. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Alvise F Inspired by 1988 news story "Sugamo child abandonment case", Kore-eda openly denounces a social issue that has been hidden for too long. He leaves out the dark and gloomy nature of the incident (that includes a rape), creating a delicate and mature film transposition more involved, closer and intimate compared to the previous works. An example of this direction are the more frequent medium shots and close-ups. Core of the story is the individualism and infantilism of adults, the indifference of society, the lack of empathy and "humanism" ("jindōshugi" 人道主義). As in previous works, we find also the Japanese aesthetics of "mono no aware" (物の哀れ), that enhances the "pathos of things", or rather, the "empathy toward things". Some examples are the fingernail polish that symbolize the maternity, but also the plants as growth and return to nature. It is precisely in this return to primitivism that the four brothers find a way to survive on the edges of society, ignored by all. However, children never lose their dignity, even in the face of the toughest tragedy. Materialistic and frivolous adults, like the mother and her lovers or the alleged fathers and gambling, are completely in contrast to the naive nature of the protagonists, eternal misfits, but in their purity of soul, honest and right, totally alien to contemporary Japanese society. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 05/22/22 Full Review mike w Fictional cinema verite at a high level of execution. (Shigeru's snoring had to be genuine.) "Nobody Knows" was hard to watch, but I got through it because it was so well made and told such a relentlessly pathetic story. I don't understand Saki's motivation for bonding with the four abandoned siblings, but clues might have been culturally exclusive - the shrine where Akira had his second eye-to-eye encounter with her and the (to me) mysterious objects she dumped into the canal. My lack of understanding might otherwise be due to my deficient observation. I don't know if I'll watch it again because it's so sad. I've now seen three of Hirokazu Koreeda's movies. "Shoplifters" is my favorite, so far. I continue to be amazed by the prolific and proficient use of child actors in Japanese and Korean movies. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member A bit arthouse and a bit too long but no escaping how attached you feel about these kid's fate. A very different story loosely based on a bunch of abandoned children in Japan back in 1988. Well made but not always entertaining. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/28/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Nobody Knows

My Rating

Read More Read Less POST RATING WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW

Cast & Crew

Movie Info

Synopsis Preteen Akira Fukushima (Yûya Yagira) and his young siblings have been abandoned by their mother, Keiko (You). Keiko, who has moved in with a new lover, has left Akira in charge of his brother, two sisters and a whole apartment, with little money and food to see them through. Akira and the other children, who were never enrolled in school, struggle to survive without basic amenities as they cope with a strange, solitary existence in a Tokyo apartment building.
Director
Hirokazu Koreeda
Producer
Hirokazu Koreeda
Screenwriter
Hirokazu Koreeda
Distributor
IFC Films
Production Co
Bandai Visual Co. Ltd., Engine Film Inc., Cine Qua Non Films
Rating
PG-13 (Some Sexual References|Mature Thematic Elements)
Genre
Drama
Original Language
Japanese
Release Date (Theaters)
Feb 4, 2005, Original
Release Date (Streaming)
Jan 19, 2017
Box Office (Gross USA)
$683.6K
Runtime
2h 21m
Sound Mix
Dolby SR
Most Popular at Home Now