A Night Off

Friday evening was a night off from apartment searching. Raph & I ate home roasted rosemary-lemon chicken and watched movies we rented earlier in the day. Tom & Jerry for young boy and Dare mo shiranai (Nobody Knows) for me.

The latter, a Japanese docu-drama by director Hirokazu Kore-eda, re-tells the true tale that shocked Japan some years back of four siblings hiding out from the welfare system in a Tokyo apartment. There's much more to it but I don't want to give anything away. Kore-eda also directed After Life (Wandafuru Raifu) which, if you haven't seen, RUN! to the video store to rent. Its fresh & unique perspective will stay with you for years.

Perhaps, considering the intense stress of racing against the clock lately to find a new home, I should've chosen a different film. Because Nobody Knows resonated so strongly on levels of basic survival and protecting loved ones at any cost, that by the film's end I'd gone through half a box of tissues. It was a welcome release, however.

The movie won awards in Cannes and Chicago when it was released in 2004 and it's definitely worth a look-see, if for nothing else than to take in the characteristically Japanese self restraint and subtlety beautifully conveyed in the film.

Cross fingers. Hopefully signing a contract within days. (!)