yushelly I watched it a few years ago when I was maybe 15 years old, and now I am re-watching it for a university essay. I remember this film touched me deeply. I remember thinking on how I could have saved the children if I became their friends. I was imagining myself helping them, and living with them when their mom quit. I took the money, and I educated them, allowing them to go to school, to seek help from the city counsels...But the whole point of this movie, although frustrating, is all about letting you take a look a this incident that happened for real (and worse) the movie actually gave it a softened tone, less atrocious. Now that I have re-watched it, I think this work represents very well Kore-eda's early works style influenced by his documentary practices; the way he directs his films: giving the most freedom to the actors themselves, allowing them to play naturally, so that the final result captured on camera unfolds so naturally and convincingly. It's all on the details the director captures: the hands, the objects, the lowered camera angle to see what the children sees, the dirty nails, etc. The camera points out the importance Kore-eda wants us to focus on, and these items are evoking emotions. They reveal memories from the past with the mother: the nail polish. The multiple shots on the little red piano reveals the the young girl's strong desire to learn piano. The laughter reveals the innocence of the children not aware of the situation, etc. Every detail adding up makes the whole, like the details in our life that seems non significant adds up to be our whole life...and that is what matters.

Elly What a waste of time. No idea how this movie got such a high rating on IMDb. It's incredibly long and boring: 2h 20mins and 80% of what you see is kids playing video games and buying groceries. I'm not a shallow person that needs fantasy, dizzying action and violence and smart-aleck dialogues, but this was boring even for me.The only good thing is that you get to see ordinary Japan. From watching VICE documentaries you can get the impression that Japan is a sleek, scentless technological utopia/dystopia full of emotionally stunted autistic virgins who marry cartoon characters and single moms who make money by eating their own poo in front of customers, so it was nice to see ordinary, human Japan.

nascent I was quite disappointed with this movie, it was very slow, lacking in character arcs, plot or emotion. The abandonment and the 'fending for themselves' is interesting, but it's half shot like a documentary, half shot like a progressive drama. But there's very little to take from the film. The characters are pretty shallow, despite the great acting and close-up shots. A movie this reminded me a lot of is King Of the Hill, a fantastically made movie about a boy left to fend for himself as his parents have to leave. There's adventure, a coming-of-age character arc, a plot with strong overtones. Very strongly written characters in addition to the good cast. Obviously they're not identical films, but I would recommend King Of The Hill tenfold over this. I'm a hugely into Asian cinema, but other than good camera-work, there's very little to this film.

MarieGabrielle I recently viewed this film several times on Independent Film Channel ( a wonderfully creative channel, and break from the usual fodder shown on HBO/Showtime. Or AMC, American Movie Channel, which re-runs John Wayne films so often (yes, even in the year 2009), I am starting to think his estate owns stock in that channel.The story here was based on truth, which I was not aware of when I watched this. The five children are left to their own devices, abandoned by a young woman, who is divorced and feels overwhelmed. She spontaneously decides to go off with another man, into a different town.The children are very believable, and try their best to survive in a tiny apartment, even resorting to growing seeds, as their electric and water supply is turned off. The actor portraying the eldest, Akira, is very good and sympathetic in the role, he worries about feeding the younger children, how to shoplift from the grocery store, and retrieve water for them when the supply is cut off at home.He brings one friend from school to stay with him, an older girl who first views the unkempt apartment with disdain, but then befriends, and even helps Akira.Good programming IFC! A film worth watching more than twice. 9/10.