of Yuki Susumu Terajima as the baseball coach Takako Tate as the convenience store cashier; Tate also performs the film's theme song Yūji Maeda Mari Hayashida Production Development According to the director Hirokazu Kore-eda, though Nobody Knows was inspired by the true story of the Sugamo child abandonment case, it is not a factual recounting, and only the settings and the ending of the story are based on the true story. Hirokazu Kore-eda had drafted and revised several screenplays for over 15 years. He also spent a very long time getting to know his subjects, and wanted the young cast members to interact, grow, and express their personalities freely, with as little adult dictation as possible. He did not use the usual structuring and cueing methods, but instead uses a discreet camera to show how children really live when no one is looking. Also, when the director discovered the actress Momoko Shimizu who played Yuki liked Apollo Choco more than Strawberry Pocky as was in the script, he changed his script to suit that and made her smile brighter. He chose not to make it a "feel-good" movie even though similar Japanese dramas often are. He avoided sentiment, aiming for a more stoic picture. This is because he wanted the audience to "take away something" from the film. Pre-production The director Hirokazu Kore-eda held extensive auditions to cast the four children, and the actors were all nonprofessionals. Also, during the casting, a little girl came in with noisy sandals. The director liked it so much that he brought it over to Yuki's character when searching for her mother. He also did not give the children detailed explanations of their roles, because he wanted them to be natural. Filming The filming took over a year, lasting from autumn 2002 to summer 2003. The reel was filmed chronologically and 70% of the story was set in a cramped Tokyo apartment (with every room built specifically for the film). The apartment was specially rented for a year for the filming of this film, and the filming assistants lived in the apartment when it was not used for filming. Director Hirokazu Kore-eda said that during the long filming period, he tried to build a relationship of trust between himself and the children, and also amongst the children themselves. During the children's filming breaks, the children were asked to write in their own journal entries