Daremo shiranai (誰も知らない) – literally translated as Nobody Knows – may be the biggest success of its Japanese director, Hirokazu Koreeda. Released in 2004, it’s based on a true story, known as the “affair of the four abandoned children of Sugamo” (Sugamo being a neighborhood in Tôkyô). These children (Akira, Kyôko, Shigeru, and Yuki), in the film, all live with their mother, though they were all born from different fathers. They are aged between five and twelve, with Akira being the eldest. Since their mother has not declared them at birth, except for Akira, they cannot go out or attend school. They live crammed into a tiny apartment, trying to be as discrete as possible. Their mother is their only adult relation and link to the world. But one day, she runs off to get married, and the four children are left on their own. Akira plays the role of surrogate parent as well as he can, attempting to comfort his siblings, who hope their mother will come back as soon as she promised she would (and are thus not aware of the truth).
"Nobody Knows is based on a true story, known as the 'affair of the four abandoned children of Sugamo' (Sugamo being a neighborhood in Tôkyô)."
Nobody Knows was first shown at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, where it deeply moved audience and jury members, even if Quentin Tarantino, who was that year’s President of the Jury, preferred Michael Moore’s political pamphlet Fahrenheit 9/11 to this subtle drama. Nevertheless, the young adolescent who played Akira received the Best Actor award, a prize which he amply deserved. In fact, the whole cast, mostly composed of non-professional actors, is perfect. The children seem completely at ease in front of the camera. Koreeda didn’t give them many instructions in order to capture their freshness and spontaneity, so they speak and react like real children, not as if they were reading a script written by an adult. You (pronounced Yû), a famous actress and model who has appeared in several of Koreeda’s films, bravely embodies the role of the egotistical and brainless mother, a short but tricky part. Koreeda himself proves that he is unmatched at filming children, and his movies somewhat evoke those of famous French filmmaker Francois Truffaut. Koreeda’s young characters are often the victims of adults’ behaviour, and they try to cope as best they can with the situations imposed upon them.
The tone of a Koreeda film can sometimes be lighter, as in the bittersweet comedy I Wish. Nobody Knows also starts rather calmly, the family seemingly happy despite the children’s terrible non-declared status, a matter which they are too young to fully grasp. Even as the tragic story unfolds, the proceedings are regularly brightened by moments when the brothers and sisters – children, after all – react playfully. The movie succeeds in never being too heavy or over-emotional. The drama plays so realistically that the viewer feels as if he or she were with an actual family, accompanying its members through tragic events (which were actually more sordid in real-life than in the film, if that even seems possible).
"The movie is a reminder of the necessity of communication, of the importance of challenging the anonymity and individualism that tends to become the norm in modern societies."
In Japanese, the suffix “mo” is added to words to form a negative. For instance, in the film’s title, “Daremo shiranai,” the term “dare” – which means “who” – takes the negative meaning of “nobody,” while “shiranai” means “not knowing.” Japanese has several levels, chosen according to the given conditions and to the interlocutor in the conversation. “Shiranai” is the familiar, common, negative present form of “shiru” (to know), with “shirimasen” being a more polite alternative. Indeed, in choosing the “shiranai” form, Koreeda anchors his story in the banality of everyday life and society. The title suggests the fact that the children have not even officially been born, since they have not been declared. It also implies the anonymity that allows four children to live on their own for several months with only a few individuals – mainly other children and young people who become their allies – noticing. The movie is a reminder of the necessity of communication, of the importance of challenging the anonymity and individualism that tends to become the norm in modern societies.
