I watched "Nobody Knows" the first time in 2013 as part of my Japanese course. Back then, I thought it was a very slow film, and it was thus hard for me to really get into it. But a lot of it stuck with me for reasons that will become obvious when you watch it. So years later, I watched it again and gained a true appreciation for the film. "Appreciation" sounds strange given the real-life event that the film is based on, but it's the closest I can get. It's been said in other reviews, but this isn't a happy film or a happy story. But my god does it open your eyes to what actually happens around the world, even if it's rare in comparison to other horrifying things we read about on the daily. Reading about the Sugamo child abandonment case after watching "Nobody Knows" just made me a hundred times more depressed about the whole thing. It's just unfathomable that such a thing can happen, that it DOES happen probably more often than we think.

The actors are mere children but they play their roles so well, especially Yagira Yuuya who played the role of Akira but also You (the actress, haha) who portrayed the children's mother, Keiko. It became really easy to despise her in the film and I think that's a sign of good acting. Because if I hadn't felt that strongly about her character, her acting wouldn't have been good enough. But it is. The cinematography in this film is absolutely stunning; it successfully captures the mood in scenes where it matters the most, and while the lack of music at times makes the film feel a little bit flat, the cinematography, acting, and overall story helps bring the score up regardless. Even so, I have to say that, at the end when the credits song started playing, I burst into tears that second time I watched through "Nobody Knows" again. It felt like the whole film was a build-up to that moment, which in some ways it was, but the way the music was brought in when it was really drove the point home.

Despite my first impression not being a good one, my second one was wildly different, and thus "Nobody Knows" is one of those films I will probably never forget.