2006-08-26

Nobody Knows

I managed to finally see the Japanese movie Nobody Knows, about the four children who were abondoned in an Tokyo appartment. Today I realised how true and real the story is and I refer this to a popular children's song back in the late 70s early 1980s (The reason I can recall this song is because I remember learning in in school at about that time, now most children learn popular cartoon theme songs on TV) - Shabon dama by Ujyou Noguchi. In this song previously posted in Japanese here, Noguchi tells about how farming life was long ago in Japan. Shabon dama are soap bubbles in Japanese and these soap bubbles are analogous to the short but fragile life of children. Long ago poor farmers could not afford to raise more than one child so they would prefer the son because he could help out on the farm when he is older, the other usually the girl they would kill or abandon somewhere.
In Nobody Knows it seems that the young mother is some kind of prostitute such that each of her four children were from different men. The movie is a powerful representation of modern day Japan where a young single mother with little responsibility for her childrens' welfare abandons her children and takes off. The dedication and courage the children have in refusing to seek help because they felt that they would not be allowed to stay together and their ability to take responsiblity to care for each other.
Many people may not be able to believe that is could happen but indeed I have read and heard about in the Japanese media. Usually single parents or parents of handicapped children who either out of irresponsibiliy or not being able to put up with children abandon their children.
 

posted by Unknown at 00:55