So I just watched the movie Nobody Knows (Dare mo Shiranai).  I went into the movie knowing it’ll be sad, I went in knowing generally what it’s about, I went in knowing it’s inspired by a true story, yet the movie still broke me down to tears.

I won’t mention any spoilers or go too much into the content itself, because I feel that if you’re going to watch this, just watch it raw.  It’s a slow movie in a certain sense, but as the movie goes on, it chips at your emotions bit by bit.  As I watched the movie, my heart sunk deeper, and deeper, and deeper.  Anger at the beginning turned into sadness, which turned into anguish, which turned into grief.  Whenever I thought it couldn’t get worse, that this was the sad part I heard about, it just kept getting worse down the end of the film.

That one Saki scene, you’ll know which one I’m talking about if you watch it, was the moment my heart just droppeed to the floor and I just started feeling anguish.  It truly just hit me how real this film is after that scene.  The things a bullied girl would resort to thinking it’s a good idea at the time.  And just seeing the progression of those kids throughout the movie.

That final dreadful moment at the end of the movie I couldn’t hold back tears anymore, and when the music kicked in after an overall fairly musicless film, every single hair on my arm stood up at once.  Both of my arms were just covered in goose bumps, it felt like I got shocked with electricity.  The director knew what he was doing there.

I’m genuinely not sure if a film has ever made me feel such immense sadness and grief before.

Another powerful part of this film was the perspective.  For the most part we follow Akira’s perspective, the perspective of a child who’s trying to be a child yet also in his situation.  A child in an adult world, yet is still a child regardless.  People tend to look at their childhood in nostalgia, many of us grew up happy and spoiled.  When we think childhood, we think of happiness.  When you watch this film featuring people in their childhood, trying to live happy lives, it just destroys you seeing such innocence being dragged through the mud.

What hit me even harder, is looking at the wikipedia page of the real life incident this movie was based on, and learning just how much worse the real life incident was compared to the movie.  The movie just shattered my heart yet is watered down compared to the horrors of the real life incident.  I highly recommend reading the wikipedia page of the real life incident after watching the movie (link).

But yeah, I would say this movie masterfully grabs your heart and emotions and drags it down into the pits of sadness as you watch through the movie.  Masterful directing too in so many ways.  I would absolutely recommend watching this movie, but definitely be prepared for the heartbreak it’ll cause you.