Nobody Knows
“Only” three films are on my blogging backlog now, and since I really hate backlogs, I decided to ‘finish them off’. Let’s start with the easiest one: The highly acclaimed “Nobody Knows”. I have heard about the film before and actually also read what it is going to be about beforehand, so I wasn’t expecting much. It seems like it’s been awhile since I have seen a slow-paced artsy asian film like this – and it also seems that I have not gotten over my sensitivity towards slow pace that are supposed to build up atmosphere but ultimately only make me want to sleep. Sometimes, a focus on details, or the scenery, or seemingly unnecessary elements can be very intense, but to me, “Nobody Knows” is an example of waste of time. Finally, I did the most horrible thing – I skipped through parts of the story and watched the end.
From what I did see, however, is that the second part of the film is much better than the first: I found the mother horribly annoying, especially with the attitude and the most atrocious voice I have ever heard from an actress – of course you are supposed to dislike the mother, but for me, she was a detriment to the film’s beauty (and it was beautiful indeed). After she disappeared from the screen, the main character finally becomes more interesting, especially since I found Akira’s actor to be quite brilliant. But I failed to feel sympathy for the characters (despite their great acting) and so I suppose it was impossible for me to enjoy the film due to the slow pace and the lack of emotional connection.
By the way, it was very funny to see that I was unable to read the hiragana of the japanese title – but I immediately recognized that the english title was simply a translation when the title was read out loud for me. How silly.
Hahaha, yeah, you not being able to read the title and then go “omg I understand” adter I read it out was comedy gold, especially because the “dare” in “dare mo shiranai” was a kanji that little Chinese girls are supposed to be able to read. :P
So this is a film I felt totally different than you. XD Well, it may be, because I watched it 2 years ago, when an artsy Asian film was still something new and absolutely exciting for me and when my addiction for movies wasn’t intense at all, but I still it’s a simply irresistably emotional film nevertheless – just like you said, especially because of the images and the actors.
The story itself, of course, is not that exciting. I do recognize that it is even possible to be boring and too slow-paced, if you’re not in the right mood, I guess. But anyway: IMO Dare mo shiranai (hohoho) is not a “story film”, it’s a “the director makes you want to feel something by using artsy and not cheesy images film”, or maybe really just a “mood film”. I love the scenes, in which the children spend time on the high steps, the scenes in the kindergarden, the ending…
And yeah, the mother’s actress really is annoying, I agree. But well, since her character’s a stupid bitch that disappears after the half of the film, it’s not that bad for me.
It is a mood film indeed and I also understand that there is quite a lot of thought behind it, but ultimately I don’t see any results in this. I probably come from an entirely different perspective than you: I grew up with stupid, pretentious “mood films” from Asia that are entirely different from the asian films that people watch in their respective countries of origin. The creation of ‘mood’ by being incredibly boring has always stood for pretentious artsiness for me to please the western, self-proclaimed open-minded audience, ugh. It’s the impression I have always had since I was small, so I’m perhaps overly sensitive against slow pace especially when it comes from an asian film.
In a lot of aspects, the mood is probably similar to “El espiritu de la colmena” – only that El espiritu is just much more beautiful and there is a much deeper layer in it (in my opinion). “Nobody Knows” just feels very bland to me, despite the good actors.