MovieChat Forums > Dare mo shiranai (2004) Discussion > Other great kids movies?

Other great kids movies?

posted 18 years ago by LuciaJoyce
32 replies | jump to latest

What other movies like "Nobody Knows" can you name, that are focussed primarily (or exclusively) on kids, that have stories and actors of such similarly great quality? I can only think of maybe four or five, and only one of those has a cast that's primarily of kids (see below):

Jeux Interdits (Forbidden Games)
Les Quatre-Cents Coups (The 400 Blows)
Ponnette
E.T.
Lilya 4-ever

...and that's it!

I would include Disney movies, like Return To Witch Mountain and The Cat From Outer Space, and maybe Truffaut's L'argent de poche, except that I haven't seen those movies since I was like two years old, and I don't know if they'll hold up still. =)

Can you name any others?

[–] jonathanrimorin-1 18 years ago

Satyajit Ray's "Pather Panchali"

Vittorio de Sica's "Shoeshine"

Neorealist movies in general focuses alot on children. Check out current Iranian cinema -- The White Balloon, for example, is a great example; also Kiarostami's and Makhmbalf's films often have children for both plot focalisations and main actors.

There's this great Iranian movie (I think, or maybe Afghan) about an older brother sneaking back and forth across the Iraqi-Afghan border to help out his sister -- I remember something about shoes, but little else, to my discredit; can anyone help me out? It bears a lot of similarity to "Nobody Knows" in that respect.

Also, "Grave of the Fireflies," if you want to expand the scope of your question to animated films (which has, arguably, a whole different defintion of "acting" than what you may have meant).

Cheers!

[–] LuciaJoyce 18 years ago

@jonathanrimorin-1:

There's this great Iranian movie (I think, or maybe Afghan) about an older brother sneaking back and forth across the Iraqi-Afghan border to help out his sister -- I remember something about shoes, but little else, to my discredit; can anyone help me out? It bears a lot of similarity to "Nobody Knows" in that respect.

Maybe you're talking about "Children of Heaven"? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118849/

Thank you for your thoughts. Any more suggestions for the list?

--
And of course, no surprise to see England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson in the crowd

[–] 18 years ago

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[–] LuciaJoyce 18 years ago

Thanks, stuntpioots, for that addition! I just put it on my Netflix queue -- I've never heard of it before!

But it reminded me of the Montgomery Clift movie The Search (1950) -- a great movie about a kid growing up in Germany year zero -- and of the Brazilian movies Pixote and City of God.

Any other movies!?

--
And of course, no surprise to see England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson in the crowd

[–] jonathanrimorin-1 18 years ago

Theo Angelopoulos's "Landscape In The Mist."

Buñuel's "Los Olvidados."

Bergman's "Fanny och Alexander."

[–] Bale-Pearce-Oldman 18 years ago

OMGOODNESS, I remember this film (Children of Heaven). It was shown to us by our film teacher and he told us that the film really changed his view on life.

Such a moving movie with heart.

I haven't watched Nobody knows yet though. I will try my best to looks for this film.

[–] markdixo 18 years ago

I don't think anyone mentioned "George Washington" Directed by David Gordon Green. Great movie and very similar in content and style as "Nobody Knows". Beautifully shot by Tim Orr.

[–] dancingjinn 17 years ago

Rabbit Proof Fence
I'm Not Afraid

[–] Gulberg 14 years ago

About the Iranian movie.

These are actually two movies. The first one about the older brother sneaking back and forth the Irananian/Pakistani border to help his sister is "Baduk".
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103760/

The second one about shoes is "Children of Heaven".

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118849/

Both movies were directed by Majid Majidi.

Rang-e-Khoda aka "Color of paradise" is another great movie by Majidi, which is worth checking out.

[–] catg_6666 17 years ago

Have you seen an Iraqi film "Turtles Can Fly"? You should watch that too.

[–] Anwar_Puttarjee 17 years ago

Salaam Bombay is another heartbreaking film about kids in real tragic situations.

[–] camp-47 17 years ago

Stand By Me.

I mean, it's not foreign or anything, but it's one of my favorites and all of the main actors are kids.

[–] pietti 17 years ago

I would definitely recommend "Children of Heaven", a movie from Iran. "Nobody Knows" reminded me so much of it. The scene in "Nobody Knows" where Akira just gets to be a kid for an afternoon and play baseball with a bunch of privileged kids is a lot like in "Children of Heaven" when the little boy accompanies his dad on a day working as a gardener in an affluent neighborhood and he gets to play with the client's son. By the way, many Irani movies focus on children because filming adults brings too much red tape on the production and distribution of a film.

Also check out "The Bicycle Thief", which is about an adult and a kid. A lot of these movies take their inspiration from this classic. If you can get your hands on it, look at "La Vendedora de Rosas" from Colombia. It's also about a child trying to make it in the world without any adults to guide her, but it's considerably more violent. "The Spirit of the Beehive" is another one to see. "Osama" from Afghanistan is another good one. Definitely check out "Not One Less" from China, and "The Way Home" from Korea. Both have a country-mouse-city-mouse theme to it, but the plots are completely different from each other.

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] 17 years ago

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[–] PunchB 15 years ago

Yea, Small Change (L'argent de poche) is great.

A new Korean movie called Treeless Mountain was also great, and similar to Nobody Knows in both theme and feel. Very very natural performances from very young children.

[–] smidget28 15 years ago

I really love Treeless Mountain, glad you mentioned it.

Now Playing: Nobody Knows

[–] gregori-kaplan 15 years ago

Ayneh (The Mirror)(1997)

A remarkable Iranian movie about a little girl on her journey from school back home.

[–] tamenolin-1 15 years ago

Spielberg´s "Empire of the sun". Leading actor Christian Bale was still a kid and yet a great actor. And it is a story about growing up, maybe even about losing your childhood.