Keiko, a single mother (her age is never revealed but it's probably early 30s) has four children from four fathers. All the children are illegitimate, have no ID papers, and don't attend school. The family move into a small apartment at the start of the movie, or rather Keiko moves in with her eldest son and sneaks the other three in. Twelve yo Akira is responsible for his siblings, 10 yo Kyoko, 7 yo Shigeru and 4 yo Yuki, doing the shopping and feeding them during the day while the mother goes off to do whatever it is she does (her job if any, is never defined). The kids live by a set of rules that each has their own chores and the younger ones are to be as quiet as possible and never let anyone see them lest they get evicted. Keiko leaves Akira money and has taught him basic mathematics to get by but her absences get longer and longer. While Akira has figured out that he can scrounge some money from the suspected fathers of Yuki , as their abandomnment gets more apparent, the kids do what they can to survive.Like Pooey, I'm not an indiscriminate lover of children. Having said that, the plight of the kids and their loyalty to each other is truly touching. At several points in the film, Akira gets frustrated at the magnitude of his load and apart from a few times when he allows himself to be a 12yo boy, he does his best to be the parent Keiko wont be - making sure everyone has their New Year money and taking Yuki out to see trains for her birthday. In return, the kids are pretty obedient. In contrast to the relative maturity of the kids, we have Keiko. I HATED KEIKO. Not just for her baby voice and neglect of her kids, but the way she uses her relative knowledge of the world to cow her kids into thinking that what she's doing is right. At the end of a month long absence, Keiko returns bearing presents, showering attention on the kids, acting as if she's never been gone only then to announce that she's leaving again. When confronted by Akira about her selfishness, she sulks and asks "Why shouldn't I be allowed to have any fun?" and when asked why they can't attend school, she replies that school isn't necessary for life as "there are many famous people who haven't gone to school" and goes on to list people Akira obviously hasn't heard of such as the Prime Minister and a wrestler.
I suppose that then brings me to the acting. The acting from the kids, particularly from Yuya Yagira as Akira. At 14 years, he totally deserved that Best Actor award from Cannes! The four kids, they were all so sibling like and normal with each other...yeah. And I guess I couldn't hate Keiko that much if You wasn't good as her too. Plotwise, this is not a movie where a lot of things happen. Instead we are given hints about time passing (the kids' hair growing), the deterioration of their lives (chores not being done, clothes getting ripped), and various schemes to get by (collecting seeds and dirt from the park in an attempt to grow their own food).
There isn't much that I'd complain about this movie. It gets a bit slow in between Keiko leaving and Akira's realisation that she isn't returning but I guess that's how it would have been for the kids - a mixture of boredom and killing time. In addition, there appears to be a bit of conflict on the IMDB forums about the lack of closure. I think you'll need to read the wiki entry to find out what happens to perhaps understand why director Kore-Eda Hirokazu finished where he did.
There's so much I want to talk about why this movie is great. There were so many things in this movie that got me thinking - the responsibility adults have to children, childhood vs adulthood, the ties that bind people together, etc etc. It definitely stuck with me for ages after viewing and while that may not make it a movie for everyone, I recommend giving it a look if you find it.
9/10
(photo from rottentomatoes.com)
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