i think 'treeless mountain' may be even better though...

Credible and effective. I think underplaying what actually happened worked as a benefit for this.

Slow-paced but dramatic movie. The acting is really good. You just feel so sorry for those sweet children

Absolutely one of the most engrossing film experiences I've ever had, from start to finish. Eschewing melodrama, Kore-eda tells the heart-wrenching story of four poor kids, abandoned by their irresponsible single mother, with a somber, Ozu-like grace. The photography is beautiful, and the subtle yet powerful acting of the kids really belies their ages. "Nobody Knows" stretches out languidly over more than two hours, but everything about this film is right on. Highly, highly recommended.

too much focused on creating depression in viewer. maybe the movie is technically very good, but i am not in mood to watch this kind of stories. there are many bad destinies of kids - i do not have to go to japan to see it.

Avoids sentiment, garish manipulation and fierce depression instead being highly subtle, a gentle, tender film that fully evokes the feeling of youth and that spends much of its time not wallowing in the filth of the situation but instead looking at a friendship that forms between our main character and the schoolgirl Saki, or that is perfectly happy to give our characters moments of joy. This strange combination of that which warms and breaks the heart is effortlessly effective.

Good movie, bad ending. But not every ending is the way you want it to be, and thats what makes this a good movie.

The quiet and gentle sensibilities make this a mostly virtuous film (It would have been so easy to go the manipulative route) but at the same time it detracts from what could have been a much more powerful and emotional experience.

The child actors are phenomenal.

Beautifully shot, quiet moments of hope interwoven with the tragically bleak.

"A meditation on solace and the promise and beauty familial togetherness." - Ed Gonzalez

Incredibly beautiful and heartbreaking. Kore-eda just has a real warmth and humanism to his films, at least the two I have seen. He is also a very gifted stylist and this film is just excellent.

Horrible story, and the worst is reality was much worse than this. The mother, doing "nothing", face the worst villains in movie history in my opinion (most of those killers, psychopaths,... are just amateurs against the coldness of this woman). I think the movie is well done, but I miss some cuts, though there's nothing that obviously should be out. Even with that, the movie doesn't look that long, but it's true it doesn't need that much time anyway.

Beautiful and has perfect pacing.