Produced by Kore-eda Studios and directed and written by Hirokazu Kore-eda, and starring Yuya Yanagi, Ai Kitaura, Hideo Kimura, Moeko Shimizu, and Han Ine-hye, no one knows, it was released in Japan on August 7, 2004.
Based on the real abandonment of babies in Japan, the film tells the story of a single-parent family in Tokyo, where four siblings are abandoned by their mothers and live alone. This is a very good work, the content is moving, the details are real. He was shortlisted for the main competition unit of the 57th Cannes International Film Festival, and the actor Yumi Liule won the best actor at this Cannes Film Festival, becoming the smallest Cannes film emperor. He won the Golden Hugo Award at the 40th Chicago International Film Festival in 2004. The film has won many awards in Japan: on January 10, 2005, the 78th Japanese Film Shunbun Awards won the first place in the top ten films of the year, the best supporting actress, and the best male newcomer award. On November 30, 2004, he won the 29th Japan Newspaper Film Awards for Best Picture. The top 10 local films of the 2000s selected by the 2020 Shunbao newspaper.
At the beginning of the film, on the bus, a boy with old and torn clothes and long and messy hair sits dazedly on the bus with a numb look, only occasionally looking at the suitcase next to him and stroking it.
The camera then shifts to a building, where a new occupant is a gentle-looking, well-spoken woman. She was taking her teenage son to visit the landlord. The boy looked honest and well-behaved and polite. The woman told the landlord that her name was Keiko Fukushima, her son was named Ming, her husband worked abroad, only their mother and son lived, and her son Ming was about to finish elementary school, had good grades in the class, was a good child who was obedient and sensible, and would never be noisy. The landlord had a good impression of them, and Ming and his mother moved into the new home smoothly.
The moving company's car arrived, the workers helped unload the luggage, Ming rushed over, and his mother carefully carried the two suitcases into the house. After the workers left, the suitcases shook. The two suitcases on the tatami were opened one by one, and inside were two children, as if they had completed a thrilling game, and with a satisfied smile they slipped out of the trunk. Next, Ming went to the station to pick up her second daughter Kyoko and lied to the neighbor that she was a distant cousin. It turned out that there were four children in this family: the eldest son Ming, who was twelve, the eleven-year-old daughter Kyoko, the five-year-old son Shigeru, and the three-year-old daughter Xiaoxue.
Moving to a new home, the child is excited. The family happily arranged their new house, and then sat around the table to eat ramen together, and my mother told her not to make a loud noise in the house, not to go out and go to the balcony. Because they are children who have been hidden by their mothers, no one knows of their existence. They were both children born out of wedlock, from different fathers, and the product of the mother being cheated and abandoned by men again and again. They are all black households without hukou, cannot go to school, cannot go out, and the only one who is allowed to go out is brother Ming.
The mother went to work during the day and often came home late, and she would leave some money for the eldest son to go to the street during the day to buy food and necessities for the whole day. Taciturn, but meticulous. When he goes out to buy vegetables, he is like a housewife, looking at the freshness of the dishes, weighing the price, and finding a few more shops to buy chocolates for his sister. The 11-year-old second daughter is responsible for washing clothes, cleaning up the housework and taking care of two younger brothers and sisters. The two older children also work together to cook for several of the family's children.
Although my mother came out early and returned late every day, she would sometimes come back drunk. But the four children still keep their lives running under the rules. Ming Qing car skillfully took care of the chores at home, the children sorted out their own things, watched TV and played with toys, and life was quiet and monotonous. At night, after the younger brothers and sisters fell asleep, they knew that they were doing their own problems to study, and there was no one to tutor, so he would look up the dictionary at any time. The mother occasionally brings good food back to the children, she will accompany the children to play games, and sometimes tutor them to study. She would also comb her younger daughter's hair and apply nail polish to her eldest daughter. Although the house is small, the days are a little tight, but the family is also very warm together.
Mom had left home twice, the first time when she was running out of money. The second time I left 200,000 yen and never came back. After their mother left, the four brothers and sisters did not shed a single tear, and their hearts always believed that their mother would come back.
His 12-year-old brother Ming was forced to become the head of the family, the backbone of the family, to take care of the lives of his younger siblings, and to calculate the family expenses in the book every day. As the New Year approached, Ming saved money from living expenses and made a beautiful dream for his younger siblings. He asked his sister at the supermarket to write the names of his younger siblings on the envelope, pretending to be the money sent by his mother, which made the children smile and believe it. Kyoko discovers that the handwriting on the envelope is not her mother's, and she does not say it, but silently shed tears. Kyoko is in charge of drying her clothes, and she dreams of one day her mother bringing her back a piano and fulfilling her wish to play the piano. Until the nail polish that her mother had painted for her on her finger fell off, and she did not wait for her mother to come back.
Although his younger brother Mao is young, he is also very obedient, and he always remembers what his mother said to him: "Don't run to the balcony, don't let people find out", so even if the toy falls on the balcony, he just bends down and pulls it back with his shoes.
And the youngest daughter, Xiaoxue, likes to paint with crayons, and a box of crayons has accompanied her throughout her life, from long to short. Xiaoxue went out for the first time on the day of her birthday, and Xiaoxue insisted that her mother would come back to accompany her today. In desperation, Ming had to agree to take her to the station to pick up her mother. Xiao Xue carried the small school bag sent by her mother and put on her favorite slippers, which was the first time she wore these shoes, because these were a pair of shoes that creaked when she walked. Although she liked it, she was afraid of being heard by the neighbors and never dared to cross it. When he went out, Ming did not forget to explain to the neighbors who passed by that Xiaoxue was a child of a relative. Xiaoxue went with great interest and returned in frustration, the street lights on the street were extinguished, and the brother who held her hand next to her was the only one to rely on, but the brother was only a child.
As the days passed, the money was getting less and less, and he wanted to work to earn money, but he was too young to hire him. Gradually Ming almost gave up hope and had no direction. He also wanted to live a carefree life like other children, he began to go in and out of the game hall to play games, and also met two friends, playing, eating snacks, and he finally had a sense of fulfillment. The escapist Ming even bought a game console, often letting two friends come to the house to play games noisily, and the sister looked at the strangers at a loss. Ming changed, he did not keep accounts, did not clean, did not have his management, the family was a mess, and finally, those so-called friends began to alienate him. Ming played the game madly, and the children were leaderless, like a scattered sand, and did not dare to talk to their brother.
The electricity bill came up, Ming hid out, and waited for people to leave before returning, he casually comforted the frightened Xiaoxue: "They are gone, rest assured." ”。 Xiaoxue did not speak, his confused eyes stared at his brother, clutching the corners of his clothes, and Xiaoxue's dependence recalled Ming's feelings.
Ming took the opportunity to run out of the house with his expectant younger siblings, buying snacks in the supermarket and playing crazy in the park. For others, this is just the most common outing, but for them this outing is more than daylight. The four children, who had been locked up in the house for a long time, ran in the sun and played in the park, which was the most rare happy time they had after moving to the new house. They were having fun in the park, and when they found the flowers on the side of the road, they expressed pity for the flowers, and the flowers that had been abandoned were more like themselves, so they plucked the seeds of the flowers, dug up the soil, and planted the seeds in the noodle boxes they had eaten.
There was no money, So Ming asked a kind clerk at the convenience store to give him the food that was about to expire, so that he would not starve to death. When the water and electricity stopped at home, they washed their clothes at the park's tap every day and took the water home. They also met another girl in the park, Shahi, a child who had been bullied by school and skipped class, and they became good friends and often went to play at home.
On this day, the landlady came to collect the rent, and saw that the parents had not returned, so they had to leave. Sha Xi saw the situation and wanted to get some money for Ming, she sang with a man for half a day, and had a considerable income. But Ming saw the shadow of his mother in Shashi's behavior, and he knocked out the money, turned and ran away.
In the morning, Ming opened his eyes in the sound of chewing, and saw Mao chewing paper, and he couldn't bear to buy a few boxes of instant noodles with the remaining coins, but when he came back, he couldn't find anyone, and he was eager to find Mao who was playing greedily. Ming became a little grumpy and quarreled with Mao, a 13-year-old child, who should not have endured this. The life at home is getting more and more difficult, there is no water and no food, the home is dirty and smelly, and Ming is becoming more and more anxious.
After a quarrel with his younger siblings, Ming ran out of the house to watch the school team play baseball in the park, which has always been Ming's dream. Just today, a child on the school team was absent from work, Ming was invited by a baseball teacher to replace, Ming was very happy, he played baseball with everyone like a normal child for the first time. But when he returned home, he saw Kyoko and Shigeru standing motionless, Xiaoxue fell from his chair, and did not get timely treatment, Xiaoxue's hands gradually became cold, and he died.
Ming used the last coin to call her mother, and before she could receive it, the coin ran out. Finally, Ming borrowed money from Shahi: "I'm going to take Xiaoxue to see the plane." "Because Xiaoxue loves planes. Sashi and Ming bought a lot of chocolates that Xiaoxue liked, packed Xiaoxue into a suitcase, took a car to the airport, and buried Xiaoxue in the lawn near the airport. Although none of them cried, their hands trembled when they buried Xiaoxue. Ironically, when they got home, they received a money order.
At the end of the film, several children still support each other and live calmly and tenaciously. They took the water bottle, which was water from the park, and as they went farther and farther, they were still four children, but there was no snow, and they were replaced by Shahi. Nothing has changed, and the children are still living in calm despair.
The film calmly narrates a repressed and sad story with calm and restraint. It does not exaggerate the sadness and criticize the parents, but it reveals the thinking of real life. In the indifference of human feelings, it is also injected with some warmth, such as: when Ming was wrongfully stolen, the clerk, although reprimanded, would still enthusiastically prove his innocence; when Keiko left home for the first time, Ming found Keiko's ex-boyfriend, they were just taxi drivers and game hall security guards, obviously they did not have any money, or paid to let them come back; when Ming sat outside the playground and watched the students play baseball with envious eyes, the coach enthusiastically let him change his clothes and go to the playground; when the children were penniless, The supermarket clerks quietly gave them the rest of the food for free; when the mother Keiko left home for a long time, the gas and water and electricity in the house were deactivated due to arrears, and their rent had been in arrears for a long time, although the landlord did not take care of them, he did not drive them out and let them live on the street. What the film wants to express should be that this society is not as indifferent as we think, they are just limited in ability, and the help they can provide is also very limited, but the reality is often more cruel.
The real "West Sugamo Baby Abandonment Incident" is even more brutal than the movie: In the summer of 1988, the agent of the Tokyo Sugamo Department received a report from a landlord in the district that there was a rent shortage of rent for many months, and there were no adults, only children. Police officers visited and found only one 14-year-old boy and two girls aged 7 and 3 years old, three children, living side by side in a flat with no gas, no electricity, a garbage dump, and a foul smell. Further searching revealed the body of a baby that was only a few months old, already reduced to white bones, in the closet of the apartment. So, there were five children in the real incident, and one of the babies was brought into the apartment in the form of a corpse. The eldest son also did not take care of his sister as in the film, but often lured wolves into the house and brought some bad teenagers to the house to play. The younger sister did not fall to her death, but was extremely hungry, stole the instant noodles of her brother's friends, and the brother's friends began to beat her sister with wooden sticks, and then the brother also participated in the beating, until finally the sister was beaten to death. They packed the bodies into suitcases and dragged them to the park to bury them. Their mother, who saw the news on television and learned that it was her child, had thought about turning herself in at first, but in the end she chose to escape because she was afraid of taking responsibility.
Through the emergency arrest of the police, the mother was eventually arrested, and it is said that she did not shed a single tear during the interrogation. She was sentenced to three years in prison, suspended for four years. The eldest son, 14, was found guilty of injuries to death and abandoned bodies and was sent to a juvenile training institution, where the eldest son's friend managed the training. When the other two children were found by the police, they were extremely weak and poorly developed and nutritionally poor, and were sent to the children's welfare home, where they were later taken back by their mothers.