Dare mo shiranai 2004

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. Read more

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: Takes us on a journey into the special domain of childhood, a voyage joyous, shattering -- and supremely convincing. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Profoundly sad, but it's made with such artistry that it's almost uplifting; you watch it mesmerized, immersed in the strange community the children create. Read more

Carla Meyer, San Francisco Chronicle: The film, winsome and tragic at once and finely attuned to the rhythms of childhood, always seems quite close to real life. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: One of those rare, unexpected movies that gets to you in a way you've never been gotten to before. Never mind tears. It leaves you with a stunned heart. Read more

AV Club: Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Hirokazu Kore-eda has made a film that's almost physically painful to watch. Spare and elegant and harrowing, it's an ode to childhood trust being stretched until it snaps. Read more

Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times: The trouble is that with its lengthy running time Nobody Knows becomes grueling and drawn-out. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: Kore-eda has an astonishing talent for making us feel the same emotional aches as the kids. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Extraordinary. Read more

Stephen Cole, Globe and Mail: Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: This gem from Hirokazu Kore-eda unfolds with the graceful simplicity of a real-life episode turned into a minimalist fable. Read more

Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly: Unfolds with such leisurely, terrible beauty, it takes a while to realize that what we are witnessing is the children's long slide into beggary, exacerbated by the slow torture of faint hope. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Hypnotic movie. Read more

Gene Seymour, Newsday: The movie's accumulation of little traumas and tiny victories sneaks to a climax that, however unsettling, doesn't upend the movie's alert, steadfast graces. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: A movie of quiet melancholy and a pervasive, lonely beauty. Read more

Jami Bernard, New York Daily News: A stately pace and gradual intro suck you into the rhythms of this parallel universe, one in which desperate children live alongside grownups and yet remain invisible. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: A harrowing, tender film. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Nobody Knows will chill you, further proof that the ability to procreate does not automatically qualify you to be a parent. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Kore-eda is the most gifted of the young Japanese directors. Read more

Charles Taylor, Salon.com: Akira reminds you of the children who have populated the films of Vittorio De Sica or Satyajit Ray, and, more unexpectedly, of the elderly Carlo Battisti in the title role of De Sica's Umberto D. Read more

David Edelstein, Slate: Kore-eda's filmmaking is austere and deliberate, yet his humanism is manifest in every frame. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: A genuinely important film. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: The film's extraordinary power derives from the filmmaker's restraint. Kore-eda is less interested in the obvious moral delinquency behind the incident than in the lives of the children who are condemned to survive it. Read more

Time Out: Read more

Derek Elley, Variety: Kore-eda sketches the inner, spiritual and emotional lives of the children with subtlety and sensitivity. Read more

Michael Atkinson, Village Voice: Calling it an 'issue' film ignores that fact that movies concerned with the fragile reality of childhood are as precious as one-pound pearls. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: It should come as no surprise that teenage actor Yagira won the acting prize at the Cannes film festival last year. Watching him, you'll feel like handing him the trophy yourself. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: Kore-eda balances a visually gritty realism -- the film itself has an almost palpably grainy look -- with unexpected lyrical notes. Read more