This movie is so devastating in a way that makes you feel helpless and empty, leaving you just staring at your ceiling for hours after watching it. By the time the credits rolled, I was consumed by so much anger and sadness, desperately wishing for a different ending. I sat there hoping that somehow they can live normal life, go to school, and finally be kids but, koreeda just left my heart shattered. What makes it even heavier is knowing it's based on a true story. It makes you wonder how many children out there have been left on their own because society neglected and abandoned them. Their father, their mother, the landlord, the convenience store clerks, they all knew what was happening to them. Yet, the only person who genuinely tried to help was just another child who had also been bullied. Deep down, everybody knows, but they turn a blind eye because they aren't willing to disrupt their own peace. This film shows how we, as a society, have slowly let go of our humanity. In that sense, everyone failed them.