A young mother moves into a small flat with her 12-year-old son. She seems a nice person. After she smuggles her three other, younger children into the flat in suitcases, and tells them to never, never set foot outside, she still seems a nice enough person, and not such a bad mother as all that, on the whole. When she abandons the children she does so by degrees. She goes away for longer and longer periods of time and one day doesnt come back. She sends her eldest son, Akira, money now and then, but soon enough stops doing even that. The children live alone in the flat for one year, two years - who knows how long. The director shoots this substantially true story in sequence over 18 months, and the children grow up (as best they can) before our eyes.The children's situation goes from bad to worst and the film ends that way, but I didn't find it a 140-minute downer. It's really the story of the children taking care of one another, and making the most of their situation - or trying to, and to some extent succeeding.Just a word of warning, so you don't make the same mistake reading the end credits I did: when the mother is credited as "YOU" (in capital letters), the director is not making some obscure accusation. "You" is the actress's name. Okay, so perhaps I was dense.